Magic Mushroom Treats Late Stage Cancer Anxiety
Cancer patients at the late stage of the disease often suffer from anxiety. In a study, reported in the Archives of General Psychiatry, an US research team has claimed that anxiety in cancer patients could be treated with magic mushroom.
The quality of emotional health of cancer patients at the late-stage of the disease is a matter of concern for mental health experts. At the advanced stage of cancer, when the chance of surviving the disease declines, a large number of cancer patients suffer from anxiety and depression.
In a pilot study involving twelve cancer patients, researchers found that moderate doses of psilocybin, commonly known as magic mushroom, could lower anxiety. Magic mushroom is a hallucinogenic substance. The mind-changing effect of mushrooms containing psilocybin lasts for about 3 to 8 hours.
After the cancer patients took magic mushroom, they were closely watched by the researchers for six hours. They were asked to close their eyes and lie still and listen to soothing music. During the study’s placebo phase, each of the subjects was given niacin, a B vitamin that elevates the HDL or good cholesterol level in the blood.
During the course of the study period, the emotional health of most cancer patients improved by taking magic mushroom. After six months, they appeared to be less depressed.
According to Dr. Charles Grob of Harbor-University of California Los Angeles Medical Center and the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute, the pilot study showed that psilocybin drugs could be safely studied in cancer patients.
While the pilot study observed the affect of moderate doses of psilocybin on cancer patients, researchers at John Hopkins University in Baltimore and New York University are currently studying the affect of higher doses of the hallucinogenic substance on the mental health of cancer patients.
Following the wide scale misuse of hallucinogenic substances, studies involving use of these substances for improving mood and anxiety of terminally ill patients were abandoned in the early 1970s.
Currently the uses of hallucinogen substances including magic mushroom that produce LSD-like experience are strictly regulated by federal laws. However, according to Dr. Grob, “times have changed.”
The application of hallucinogenic drugs for treating emotional distress in cancer patients at the advanced stage of the disease has been revived in recent years.
