November 6, 2018 – Psilocybin Utility

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Anchor lead: Psilocybin’s list of conditions where it may help is expanding, Elizabeth Tracey reports

The FDA is reviewing whether the hallucinogenic drug psilocybin should be reclassified to acknowledge areas where it is clinically useful, at the urging of Matthew Johnson, a psilocybin researcher at Johns Hopkins, and colleagues. Johnson says abundant data from clinical trials provides some guidance.

Johnson: Where we’re furthest along is in the use of psilocybin to treat depression and anxiety in folks with cancer. There’s also more preliminary but still very promising research on helping people to quit smoking, on helping people with depression outside of the cancer context and helping people with alcoholism.  If approached in the right way there’s a good bet that it would be effective for a number of different addictions. :30

Johnson believes skilled use of psilocybin may even be helpful in those who are addicted to opioids. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.