PSYCHOACTIVE EFFECTS OF PSILOCYBIAN MUSHROOMS
Symptoms produced by eating fresh hallucinogenic mushrooms begin to occur within 15 to 30 minutes after ingestion (or from 5 to 10 minutes when prepared in the form of tea or soup). Symptoms persist for up to four to six hours after ingestion. In 1960, Clinical effects for psilocybine intoxication in humans was reported as being Hollister et al., 1962):
"0-30 minutes - Slight nausea, giddiness (light-headed), abdominal discomfort, weakness, muscle aches and twitches, shivering, anxiety, restlessness, and a numbness of lips.
30-60 minutes - Visual effects (blurring, brighter colors, sharper outlines, longer after-images, visual patterns with closed eyes). Increased hearing, yawning, sweating, facial flushing. Decreased concentration and attention, slow thinking, feelings of unreality, depersonalization, dreamy state. Inco-ordination, tremulous speech.
60-120 minutes - Increased visual effects (colored patterns and shapes, mostly with eyes closed). Wave-motion of viewed surfaces. Impaired distant perception. Euphoria, increased perception, and a slowed passage of time.
120-240 minutes - Waning and nearly complete resolution of above effects. Returning to normal within 4-12 hours. Other effects often include: Decreased salivation and appetite; uncontrollable laughter; transient sexual feelings and synesthesias (e.g., `seeing' sounds)."
For comparison with the clinical experience described above, the following is an excerpt from one of R. Gordon Wasson's experience with psilocybin mushrooms:
"The mushrooms take effect differently with different persons. For example, some seem to experience only a divine euphoria, which may translate itself into uncontrollable laughter. In my case I experienced hallucinations. What I was seeing was more clearly seen than anything I had seen before. At last I was seeing with the eye of the soul, not through the coarse lenses of my natural eyes. Moreover, what I was seeing was impregnated with weighty meaning: I was awe-struck."
Treatment
TREATMENT FOR PSILOCYBIAN MUSHROOM POISONING
The major dangers associated with psilocybin poisonings are primarily psychological in nature. Anxiety or panic states ("bad trips"), depressive or paranoid reactions, mood changes, disorientation and an inability to distinguish between reality and fantasy may occur.
Recommended treatment for this type of poisoning should always be primarily supportive. Mycologist Dr. Joseph Ammirati of the University of Washington and his colleagues claim that "no specific treatment can be recommended for psilocybin poisoning in humans". Other doctors have "stress[ed] the importance of measures to reduce absorption of the toxins involved". This involves either, e.g., gastric lavage or emesis Lincoff & Mitchell, 1977; Rumack & Saltzman, 1978; Smith, 1978).
Emesis. 15-30 cc of ipecac syrup followed by large amounts of oral liquids (500 cc).
Supportive treatment: i.e. the "talk-down" technique is the preferred method for handling "bad trips". It involves non-moralizing, comforting, personal support from an experienced individual. This is further aided by limiting external stimulation such as intense light or loud sounds and letting the person lie down and perhaps listen to soft music.
Tranquilizers need only be used in extreme situations and are generally not considered to be necessary. Diazepam, 0.1 mg/kg in children, up to 10 mg in adults, may be used to control seizures.
According to Dr. Rick Strassman of the University of New Mexico, anti-psychotics have gone out of favor for the treatment of `bad trips'. Specifically, medicines with anti-cholinergic side effects, such as chlorpromazine, should not be given as these mushrooms can have marked anti-cholinergic effects of their own.
In 1988, Dr. Jansen noted that cases which present medically fall into several groups:
Those who have taken the drug with little knowledge of hallucinogens and in the absence of sensible persons who can take care of them. These are more likely to be adolescents. They may self-present but are more often brought for medical attention by their parents.
Those who fall as a result of impaired balance or muscle weakness and are knocked out or otherwise injured as a result.
Those who are having a `bad trip'. These may involve acute anxiety and panic, depression, paranoid reactions, disorientation and an inability to distinguish between reality and fantasy.
Cases of idiosyncratic physical reactions such as cyanosis.
Those with recurring phenomena after the mushroom effects should have passed, including prolonged psychosis.
When the history is clear and the signs are suggestive of psilocybian intoxication, it is best not to artificially empty the stomach either by emesis with ipecac or by lavage. Treatment shows that emptying the stomach had no effect on the duration or intensity of the experience once psychological manifestations had properly commenced. Dr. Jansen maintains that unless there is a reason to suspect that a more toxic fungus has been ingested, or if the patient is a young child, induced emesis is not necessary, not helpful and may make the situation much worse if the patient is already aggressive and agitated.
Other doctors have also speculated that a lavage is not merited if psilocybian mushrooms have been positively identified as the source of discomfort. It has also been suggested that "gastric intubation can be difficult in these young patients who are often already distressed and not infrequently aggressive. Furthermore the mushrooms may block the standard lavage tubes [used] for drug overdoses."
The inherent danger from the ingestion of wild mushrooms lies not so much in the consumption of an hallucinogenic variety, but rather in the picking and eating of a toxic species which might resemble an hallucinogenic variety.
Dr. Gast๓n Guzmแn (and his colleagues wrote that "field and laboratory studies strongly indicate that psychoactive mushroom use as it normally occurs does not constitute a drug abuse problem or a public health hazard" (Guzmแn et al., 1976). In addition, a recent survey conducted among college students in California, suggests that "the low frequency and few negative effects of [hallucinogenic mushroom] use indicate that abuse does not present a social problem, nor is there evidence for predicting the development of a problem" Thompson et al., 1985).
FLASHBACKS
In 1973, Dr. Hall was the Principal Research Officer of the Narcotics Section of the Commonwealth Police Force in Canberra. Dr. Hall had also reported that several drug users had been experiencing recurring `flashbacks' from mushrooms that were similar to `flashbacks' which were associated with LSD consumption.
According to Dr. Karl L. R. Jansen, there is not any firm evidence that mushroom `flashbacks' can occur. Researchers in 1983, have reported that out of 318 specific cases of Psilocybe intoxications occurring in England between l978-l981, 21 patients experienced `flashback phenomena of some form' for up to four months after ingestion", and also mentioned that some of these were the result of drug synergy and polydrug abuse.
"...However, with such a controversial phenomena as `flashbacks', it is necessary to specify precisely what form these do take, so that they may be distinguished from psychological stress reactions wrongly attributed to past drug use." Dr. Hall also pointed out that "if solutions of mushroom extracts were injected intravenously, the results could be very serious." There are no known cases of such injections, and it seems extremely unlikely that anyone would attempt this.
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