Top Federal Health Official Highlights ‘Growing Evidence’ Psilocybin Can Treat Addiction, Depression And More

The head of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) says there’s “growing evidence” that psilocybin could represent a novel therapy option in the treatment of substance misuse, depression, anxiety and other mental health conditions.

While NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli cautioned that the agency is not advising people to use the psychedelic for recreational purposes, initial studies looking into its therapeutic potential have shown promising results, especially as it concerns increasing plasticity in the brain that could help address major mental health disorders.

Psilocybin “comes with health risks and isn’t recommended for recreational use,” she said. But “there’s growing evidence that—under the right conditions—its effects on the brain might be harnessed in the future to help treat substance use disorders or mental illnesses.”

Bertagnolli specifically cited an NIH-supported study published in the journal Nature last month that involved MRI brain mapping of people who took psilocybin in a medically supervised setting. The research supported findings from earlier studies involving animals that found the psychedelic “makes key brain areas more adaptable,” or “plastic.”

The NIH-backed study, conducted by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, examined brain functioning among healthy adults who were first administered doses of psilocybin and methylphenidate, the generic version of the prescription amphetamine Ritalin. Six to 12 months later, they were brought back and given a dose of psilocybin alone.

This week on the blog: A new study at @WUSTLmed maps the effects of #psilocybin, an ingredient in “magic mushrooms”, on the brain, with the goal of understanding why the drug has shown potential benefit for treating mental health conditions. https://t.co/4HmojXpYWQ#NIH

— Dr. Monica M. Bertagnolli (@NIHDirector) August 15, 2024

“Comparisons of the brain images revealed profound and widespread, but temporary, changes to the brain’s functional networks,” Bertagnolli said in a blog post published on Thursday. “While an individual’s functional brain network is typically as distinctive as a fingerprint, psilocybin made the participants’ brain networks look so similar in the scans that the researchers couldn’t tell them apart.”

“For all the participants, psilocybin desynchronized the brain’s default mode network, an interconnected set of brain areas that are most active when people are daydreaming or otherwise not engaged in any focused, goal-directed mental activity. By comparison, the default mode network remained stable after study participants took methylphenidate. Once the effects of psilocybin wore off, brain function returned almost to its original state. However, the researchers did note small but potentially important differences in each participant’s brain scans after taking psilocybin that remained for weeks.”

The NIH director said the study findings “suggest that the more subtle, longer-term effects they observed might indicate that the brain is more flexible in the weeks following a dose of psilocybin in ways that could allow for a healthier state.”

“This may help explain preliminary research showing that psilocybin may have benefits for treating substance use disorders, as well as depression, anxiety, and other mental health conditions,” she said.

While “encouraging,” the study results “should not be seen as a reason to try psilocybin without clinician supervision or use it to self-medicate,” Bertagnolli stressed. “The drug is not proven or approved as a treatment for any condition, and its unsupervised use comes with serious risks. The researchers hope that with much more clinical study of how and why this drug affects individuals in the powerful ways that it does, this kind of research may one day lead to a greater understanding of the human brain and promising new interventions that improve mental health.”

Like the top NIH official, National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Director Nora Volkow said last year that there is emerging evidence that psychedelics carry “significant potential” as therapeutic treatments for certain mental health conditions, and it’s a topic of “great interest” for researchers.

The new blog post from the NIH director, meanwhile, also comes as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) faces criticism for declining to approve MDMA-assisted therapy for the treatment of conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder after an agency advisory committee recommended against that approval earlier this year.

Bipartisan lawmakers separately staged an event at the U.S. Capitol calling for the MDMA approval and also launched an art installation memorializing military veterans who died by suicide.

A U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) official also said this month that the agency has produced “stunning and robust results” from a first-ever clinical trial into MDMA therapy. She is also applauding Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), who recently visited a VA research facility, for her “knowledge of the psychedelic literature and all of the relevant issues.”

Meanwhile, FDA recently withdrew a request for White House permission to conduct a study about the risks of using kratom and psychedelics amid a “rapid resurgence” of public interest in the substances. Advocates are celebrating the news after criticizing the initial request as another example of FDA “bias” against harm reduction options.

Also, the U.S. House of Representatives recently approved amendments to a large-scale spending bill that would authorize VA doctors to issue medical marijuana recommendations to military veterans and support psychedelics research and access.

The Senate Appropriations Committee also recently passed report language for appropriations legislation conveying concerns about restrictions on marijuana and psychedelics research imposed by current prohibition.

Bipartisan Congressional Lawmakers Say U.S. Citizen Jaile In Russia Needs Medical Marijuana Access To ‘Subdue His Pain’

Photo courtesy of Dick Culbert.