|
 aj123
smot poking
Registered: 09/08/08
Posts: 710
Loc: Easter island 
Last seen: 17 hours, 55 minutes
|
 Taking the magic mushroom drug psilocybin for a trial [UK] 
#13739734 - 01/06/11 06:30 AM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
|
|
Taking the magic mushroom drug psilocybin for a trial
By Dr Michael Mosley
Psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, is a Class A drug,
Last summer, while filming for my new BBC4 series, The Brain - A Secret History, I took part in the UK's first scientific trial of psilocybin - the active component of magic mushrooms. It was one of the strangest experiences of my life.
Psilocybin is a hallucinogenic drug, so I was extremely apprehensive.
It also has a dark past. As well as being used recreationally, psilocybin and other hallucinogenic drugs were used in the 1950s and 60s as part of brain-washing experiments by the US military.
Since it is a class A drug, taking it would normally be illegal. But the former government drugs adviser, Professor David Nutt of Bristol University and a team from Imperial College believe that psilocybin is worth investigating as it may have a role to play in medicine, possibly as a treatment for severe depression.
They want to study what psilocybin does to the brains of healthy volunteers. They have permission to administer the drug within the controlled environment of a clinical trial.
Which is why, one rainy afternoon, I turned up at a brain scanning unit belonging to Cardiff University
Existential experience
"So am I going to enjoy this?" I asked Professor Nutt.
"I think so. Most of our volunteers have. Most people get something positive from it," he reassured me.
The team were expecting psilocybin to have a profound impact, so I was put through a battery of psychological tests to check my mental stability.
Hallucinogens are very unpredictable. I would not have been allowed to take part if I had not passed the tests. But there was still the risk of a "bad trip" which is said to feel like being trapped in a nightmare.
I asked Dr Robin Carhart-Harris, also running the trial, what I was likely to experience.
"It can be quite dramatic", he told me. "The last volunteer said it was like an intense, spiritual experience, an existential experience, that his whole sense of self dissolved and he only existed as a concept."
I think this was intended to be reassuring, but it wasn't. I was pretty sure that I didn't want to find out what it was like to exist as a concept.
Alone in a tube
After a thorough physical examination, I was placed in a brain scanner, so the team could map in detail how my brain reacted.
Then the drug was injected.
For an instant there was nothing. Then it was like that moment in a Star Trek film when the space ship goes into hyperdrive. The walls of the scanner dissolved and I took off to the stars. I saw intense colours and patterns.
It was beautiful, but disturbing. It was also intensely frustrating because I wanted someone to share the experience with, and I was all alone in a metal and plastic tube.
Prof Nutt and his team, who were monitoring the effects on my brain, told me later that my brain registered an intense response.
After about ten minutes they had collected enough data, so they let me out of the scanner. Although the hallucinogenic effects of psilocybin had largely worn off I now had an uncontrollable urge to talk. . . and talk . . . and talk.
Therapeutic tool
My results were then merged into the consolidated scans from the other participants in the trial, and Professor Nutt showed me what they had learnt.
"Our aim was to identify the precise areas inside the brain where the drug is active. We thought when we started that psilocybin would activate different parts of the brain. But we haven't found any activation anywhere. All we have found are reductions in blood flow"
A fall in blood flow suggests that brain activity has reduced. The areas affected were those parts of the brain that tell us who we are, where we are and what we are. When these areas were dampened down, I was no longer locked into my everyday constraints.
This is also one of the reasons why magic mushrooms and other psychedelic drugs are so potentially dangerous. Without a sense of who and what they are, there are cases of people running into busy roads or trying to fly with fatal consequences.
But David thinks that because psilocybin can dampen activity in critical areas of the brain it may, in future, also have a place in the treatment of mental disorders like depression.
"In conditions like depression or obsessive compulsive disorder, where people get locked into a maladaptive mindsets, these regions can be overactive. So maybe dampening down these areas will help people move into another mindset which might be better and healthier".
American researchers, using non-hallucinogenic versions, have already begun researching the use of former "psychedelics" for treating depression, obsessive compulsion disorder, alcoholism, and addiction.
David is not suggesting that people who are depressed treat themselves with class A drugs. NHS advice warns that people with mental conditions are at particular risk from hallucinogens which can make existing conditions worse. But he does think that it is an area of research that could prove extremely fruitful.
"It would be wonderful if we had a new way of treating depression, wouldn't it? Particularly if you could hold on to those effects and maintain them."
So hallucinogenic drugs may have a part to play in the future as a therapeutic tool. It's a far cry from the military ambitions of would be brainwashers.
As for me, well it was an interesting experience. But not one I will be repeating.
Dr Michael Mosley presents The Brain: A Secret History, a three part series on BBC Four on Thursdays at 2100GMT from 6 January
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12122409
--------------------
|
shroomzi8
missing in action
 
Registered: 10/04/10
Posts: 1,579
Loc: cornwall, england
Last seen: 1 hour, 26 minutes
|
Re: Taking the magic mushroom drug psilocybin for a trial [UK] [Re: aj123]
#13739807 - 01/06/11 06:53 AM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
|
|
ill be watching that then. inject?? only lasted 10 mins? jesus h christ on a rubber fucking cross! wonder why it only lasted 10 mins? maybe as it was injected it was a 'live fast n die young drug'? nice to see someone here having a bit of sense and doing some proper research tho. its only been class a since 2005. interesting post dude...
ps really easter island? bet those heads are something else to trip around...
mahalos.
--------------------
in the middle of a nervous breakdown.
  
|
agonzalez64
Stranger
Registered: 10/26/10
Posts: 71
Last seen: 1 month, 28 days
|
Re: Taking the magic mushroom drug psilocybin for a trial [UK] [Re: shroomzi8]
#13739884 - 01/06/11 07:16 AM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
|
|
"This is also one of the reasons why magic mushrooms and other psychedelic drugs are so potentially dangerous. Without a sense of who and what they are, there are cases of people running into busy roads or trying to fly with fatal consequences."
Lawlz, anyone?
|
shroomzi8
missing in action
Registered: 10/04/10
Posts: 1,579
Loc: cornwall, england
Last seen: 1 hour, 26 minutes
|
Re: Taking the magic mushroom drug psilocybin for a trial [UK] [Re: agonzalez64]
#13739938 - 01/06/11 07:34 AM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
|
|
lawlz?? wassat??
--------------------
in the middle of a nervous breakdown.
|
shroomzi8
missing in action
Registered: 10/04/10
Posts: 1,579
Loc: cornwall, england
Last seen: 1 hour, 26 minutes
|
Re: Taking the magic mushroom drug psilocybin for a trial [UK] [Re: shroomzi8]
#13739960 - 01/06/11 07:42 AM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
|
|
lawlz....A lesser version of "lol." It means you found something entertaining, and/or amusing, but not enough to create an actaul laugh, chuckle or chortle. Allows the person your chatting with to know that you find them entertaining, but that you are in fact, not laughing at them  (urban dictionary)
i guess its an american thing?
i see what you mean.
class A my ass they should have left it unclassified. flying out of windows? bull shit. that is the call to arms of parents against drugs.
i dont know of anyone who has tried to jump outta window.
--------------------
in the middle of a nervous breakdown.
|
shroomzi8
missing in action
Registered: 10/04/10
Posts: 1,579
Loc: cornwall, england
Last seen: 1 hour, 26 minutes
|
Re: Taking the magic mushroom drug psilocybin for a trial [UK] [Re: shroomzi8]
#13739969 - 01/06/11 07:45 AM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
|
|
as for running into busy roads, have you ever tried running anywhere on shrooms? with super wobbly legs and total lethargy. no neither have i. mahalos.
--------------------
in the middle of a nervous breakdown.
|
aiyobro
Good Looking Bitch
Registered: 06/30/07
Posts: 9,057
Loc: Outer Space
Last seen: 1 hour, 43 minutes
|
Re: Taking the magic mushroom drug psilocybin for a trial [UK] [Re: shroomzi8]
#13741812 - 01/06/11 02:26 PM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
|
|
i do recall how cold I easily get running into a road tho, trying to fly out of a window? Horse shit, thats some paranoid thinking really.
|
gushtunkinflupped
#########
Registered: 03/25/10
Posts: 351
Last seen: 6 days, 16 hours
|
Re: Taking the magic mushroom drug psilocybin for a trial [UK] [Re: aiyobro]
#13742606 - 01/06/11 04:32 PM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
|
|
i tried to fly once and sprained my ankle...hence...
mushrooms are the devil!
--------------------
|
Picoloco
Stranger
Registered: 03/06/08
Posts: 176
Last seen: 24 days, 5 hours
|
Re: Taking the magic mushroom drug psilocybin for a trial [UK] [Re: gushtunkinflupped]
#13742716 - 01/06/11 04:52 PM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
|
|
i once jumped up a whole flight of stairs on shrooms in one leap... a sober friend said it was the craziest thing hes ever seen. sort of like flying... mind over matter i suppose...
--------------------
   R.I.P 
|
 nooneman
Stranger
Registered: 04/24/09
Posts: 2,884
|
Re: Taking the magic mushroom drug psilocybin for a trial [UK] [Re: aj123]
#13744362 - 01/06/11 09:03 PM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
aj123 said:
As for me, well it was an interesting experience. But not one I will be repeating.
That dude tried high dose psilocin and doesn't think he'll want to try it again...
Also, it's interesting that psilocin decreases brain activity rather than increasing it. Especially since it's known to occasionally cause seizures. One of the old theories is that psychedelics prevent the brain from filtering information, but this seems to do just the opposite. The occasional passing out on mushrooms might be explained by decreased activity and blood flow, though. If blood flow decreased enough, you might easily end up unconscious.
Edited by nooneman (01/06/11 09:12 PM)
|
aiyobro
Good Looking Bitch
Registered: 06/30/07
Posts: 9,057
Loc: Outer Space
Last seen: 1 hour, 43 minutes
|
Re: Taking the magic mushroom drug psilocybin for a trial [UK] [Re: nooneman]
#13744420 - 01/06/11 09:10 PM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
|
|
:huh:
|
metall
storm tripper
Registered: 10/25/10
Posts: 860
Last seen: 5 days, 16 hours
|
Re: Taking the magic mushroom drug psilocybin for a trial [UK] [Re: Picoloco]
#13744688 - 01/06/11 09:46 PM (1 year, 4 months ago) |
|
|
To the picollo i totally agree.I once climbed onto the top of a large landmark while tripping.The odd part is i tried multiple time to do this task sober each time failing.Since the experience i have been able to climb up no issues. Also about running in front of cars how the fuck could i run in front of a car when a 2 minute walk takes 10 while im tripping and it feels like 1 hr and i sure as fuck ain't going toward the the large moving thing coming right for me. Also from my experience at the dose you lose your ego ur a defenitely slowed physically as well and from my experiences i cannot see anythign at all scaring me enough to try and fight with my legs to make them runn in front of a car or jump out a window
--------------------
FUCK OFF FEDS PEOPLE NEED THEIR MEDS
|
aiyobro
Good Looking Bitch
Registered: 06/30/07
Posts: 9,057
Loc: Outer Space
Last seen: 1 hour, 43 minutes
|
Re: Taking the magic mushroom drug psilocybin for a trial [UK] [Re: metall]
#13878317 - 01/30/11 05:37 PM (1 year, 3 months ago) |
|
|
|
|
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
Edit 
Reply 
