Three Things To Read This Week

1. Promising Results From A Randomized Clinical Trial Of Psilocybin Treatment for Major Depressive Disorder. 

The prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association just published “a randomized, placebo-controlled trial of psilocybin administered with psychological support”, finding that the treatment “was associated with a rapid and sustained antidepressant effect, measured as change in depressive symptom scores, compared with active placebo.” 

Here’s how the authors conducted the study:

“[Participants in the treatment groups received] a 25-mg dose of psilocybin administered with psychological support [while] Niacin was used as an active placebo [for participants in the placebo group].

Study drugs were administered within a ‘set and setting’ protocol that was identical for participants randomized to receive either psilocybin or niacin placebo and that included:

(1) 6 to 8 hours of preparatory sessions with 2 facilitators between the baseline assessment and the day of dosing, 

(2) a 7-to-10 hour dosing session conducted in a comfortable room under the supervision of the same facilitators, and 

(3) 4 hours of post-dose integration sessions during which participants were invited to discuss their dosing experience with the facilitators …

[The study used comparative shifts on two different scales that assess major depressive disorder to gauge the effectiveness of the psilocybin versus the placebo].” 

Here’s how the authors described the study’s central conclusions:

“In this randomized trial, a single 25-mg dose of psilocybin administered with psychosocial support was associated with clinically and statistically significant reductions in depressive symptoms and improvement in measures of functional disability compared with a 100-mg dose of niacin placebo administered under an identical protocol … Improvements in depression were apparent within 8 days of psilocybin dosing, consistent with a rapid onset of action, and were maintained across the 6-week follow-up period, without attenuation of the effect … Psilocybin treatment [also] was associated with improvements in global disease severity, self-reported depressive and anxiety symptoms, and improvement in quality of life, while having no effect on emotional blunting reported with standard antidepressant medicines … These findings add to evidence that psilocybin—when administered with psychological support—may hold promise as a novel intervention for MDD.”

2. How Psilocybin Therapy Helped An Arizona Man Process The Grief Of His Father’s Death. 

For Oregon Public Broadcasting, Kristian Foden-Vencil details the experience of “James Carroccio, a retired small business owner who traveled to Oregon from Arizona” to become one of the first patients to receive state-regulated psilocybin-assisted treatment in Oregon:

“When he was 14, Carroccio found his father in bed, dead from a heart attack. His mother was out of the picture, so suddenly, he was alone. ‘I lost everything…my world was out of control, and I had to get control of things around me.’ … His compulsive behavior impacted many aspects of his life [. For example,] he says he over-regimented the lives of his children … Over 30 years, Carroccio estimates he went through a dozen therapists [for “obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.”]. It was of limited help … The therapist always gave me a quick feel-good. But the pattern and the behavior never changed.”

That’s why Mr. Carroccio decided to seek psilocybin treatment. He wanted “a complete change.”  As Carroccio told Oregon Public Broadcasting, once he ingested the psilocybin,

“[H]e started thinking about his mental health and his father [and] ‘exposing myself to that depth of grief that I’d never known, I was immediately rewarded with the most intense love.’ Two days later, … Carroccio had another meeting with Goldstein to integrate new insights into his life. While facilitators warn that psilocybin is not a magic bullet for OCD, depression, or any other health problem, Carroccio said it helped immeasurably.”

3. The Conservative Case for Psychedelic Medicine. 

Rick Perry, who describes himself as the “knuckle-dragging, right-wing, Republican former governor of the state of Texas,” recently explained to Reason Magazine’s Nick Gillespie that he became a champion of psychedelic medicine after “Marcus Luttrell—who was the author of Lone Survivor, the book and then the movie was made about his experience—lived with us at the governor’s mansion for two-plus years.” As Governor Perry detailed in the interview:

“[M]y wife and I were learning about post-traumatic stress and how poorly our government was dealing with this, frankly. And we were trying to find solutions to help heal this young man [and other] young men who have put their lives on the line for us, [and] who have been impacted through all the different types of trauma that come with being a war fighter … I’m a results oriented guy … This treatment, this medicine works. [T]he potential here is stunningly positive. [The] Phase three [clinical trials] are showing just amazing.”

Related: Politico’s Erin Schumaker is out with a new piece on how psychedelic medicine “as a cure for America’s mental health crisis” is the “new cause in Washington that’s uniting Republicans, Democrats and Biden health officials[.]”