US university opens centre for studying magic mushrooms’ medical uses

Prestigious US university Johns Hopkins opens psychedelic research centre dedicated to studying medical uses of MAGIC MUSHROOMS and other hallucinogenic drugs

• The Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research received a $17m grant
• Magic mushrooms contain chemical psilocybin which may have brain benefits
• Scientists believe it could treat depression, anorexia and drug addictions 

One of the US’s most prestigious universities is setting up a research centre to investigate the health benefits of psychedelic drugs.

Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, has received $17million (£13.9m) to open its Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research.

Magic mushrooms, which contain a chemical called psilocybin, will be top of the scientists’ list as they attempt to find out whether it could become a treatment for addictions, Alzheimer’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder or anorexia.

The centre will be the first of its kind in the US and the largest in the world, the university said, and heralds a ‘new era of research’.

A growing body of research suggests magic mushrooms may have benefits for the brain health of people with conditions such as depression, anorexia or addictions (stock image)

‘Johns Hopkins is deeply committed to exploring innovative treatments for our patients,’ said the chief executive of Johns Hopkins Medicine, Dr Paul Rothman.

‘Our scientists have shown that psychedelics have real potential as medicine, and this new centre will help us explore that potential.’

Previous research by scientists at the university has focused on psilocybin, which is found naturally in hundreds of species of mushrooms.

Recreational drug users take ‘magic mushrooms’ to get high and hallucinate, but experts believe the chemicals inside them may be able to treat brain disorders.

Depression, eating disorders, Lyme disease and alcoholism could all be targets for the trippy drug.

And researchers could move onto investigating uses for other hallucinogenic substances such as LSD (acid), peyote and DMT.

The centre will employ 11 researchers, among them neuroscientists, experimental psychologists and medics who specialise in psychedelic science.

The team are some of the foremost in their field, in 2000 becoming the first to get government approval to experiment with psychedelic drugs in healthy human volunteers. 

But, unable to get government funding for their research into the illegal drugs, the scientists had to use private donations to set up the dedicated centre.

Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, is one of the US’s most prestigious universities outside of the Ivy League group of seven. Scientists were unable to get funding from the government for their psychedelic research centre but received $17m (£13.9m) in private donations

Professor James Potash, a Johns Hopkins psychiatry researcher, said: ‘I am thrilled about this magnificent opportunity that has been provided by enlightened private funders.

‘This centre will allow our enormously talented faculty to focus extensively on psychedelic research, where their passions lie and where promising new horizons beckon.’

Investors included the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation and four individual investors: Tim Ferriss, Matt Mullenweg, Blake Mycoskie and Craig Nerenberg. 

Alex Cohen, president of the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Foundation, said: ‘We have to take braver and bolder steps if we want to help those suffering from chronic illness, addiction, and mental health challenges.

‘By investing in the Johns Hopkins centre, we are investing in the hope that researchers will keep proving the benefits of psychedelics – and people will have new ways to heal.’ 

As well as doing its own medical research, the centre will also help to train student scientists who want to specialise in psychedelics.

This has in the past been a limited career path but the Johns Hopkins investors said they hope their ‘ambitious’ centre will ‘inspire others to think big’.

THE PSYCHEDELIC DRUGS BEING STUDIED FOR THEIR MENTAL HEALTH BENEFITS

In recent years, scientists have increasingly looked to psychedelic drugs as promising therapies for treatment-resistant mental illness.

Currently, such mind-altering drugs are largely illegal in the US.

But ongoing clinical trials suggest that drugs once beloved by hippies and club kids might have medical benefits, too.

Scientists are investigating:

KETAMINE

The club drug and tranquilizer has been in tests for treating depression for several years.

In March 2019, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the first nasal spray version of the drug.

Ketamine works much more quickly than traditional antidepressants, and scientists believe it encourages new neural connections that can help overwrite unhealthy, depressive thought patterns.

PSILOCYBIN

The active ingredient in ‘magic mushrooms,’ psilocybin is a powerful hallucinogen.

It, too, acts far more quickly than traditional drugs and is being analyzed for use in patients with both depression and PTSD.

Psyilocybin helps encourage neurplasticity and is thought to quiet down the ‘default mode network’ in the brain, and activate the ‘salience network’ that is involved in medication.

In August, the FDA cleared the largest clinical trial for psilocybin to-date.

MDMA

The club drug MDMA – sometimes called ‘Molly’ – is currently in trials to treat PTSD.

MDMA appears to quiet activity in the amygdala and hippocampus, regions of the brain involved in emotional processing and fear responses, which are over-active in those with PTSD.

Patients participating in MDMA trials take a dose of the drug, and remain in an eight-hour session with two therapists who guide their experience.

LSD

The psychedelic compound LSD has a similar structure to the brain chemical, serotonin.

LSD’s discovery played a role in our discovery of how serotonin works in the brain and why imbalances of the neurochemical are involved in depression and anxiety.

Trials using LSD-assisted therapy to treat anxiety are ongoing and have shown early promise. 

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