United States: Psychedelic found in ‘magic mushrooms’ may aid in combating anorexia – a new study reveals.
Have you ever talked to someone who’s been ‘touched’ by the sacerdotal mushroom? After being given psilocybin treatment, 4 out of 10 people in the latest study had their anorexia-driven eating pattern diminished at the clinical level, according to researchers, as reported by HealthDay.
Therapy and Treatment Details
“Our findings suggest that psilocybin may be helpful in supporting meaningful psychological change in a subset of people with anorexia nervosa,” said lead researcher Stephanie Knatz Peck, a clinical associate professor with the University of California, San Diego’s Eating Disorder Center.
Participants included 10 adult women with anorexia with a single dose of synthetic psilocybin in the amount of 25 milligrams together with specialized psychological intervention.
Broader Treatment Approach
Anorexia affects the individual in that they worry a lot about their weight and the foods they take. They may starve themselves to a significant extent, or they may eat a lot, force vomiting, or abuse substances like laxatives.
New research found nine out of the 10 women treated with psilocybin rated the session among their five most spiritually significant experiences in life.
They were initially reported in a paper published in Nature Medicine in 2023 and further outlined in a paper published on 7 November 2022 in the Psychedelics journal.
“What’s particularly interesting is that 60% of participants reported a reduction in the importance of physical appearance, while 70% noted quality-of-life improvements and shifts in personal identity,” Knatz Peck said in a journal news release.
Nevertheless, the shifts in their psychological state did not directly correlate with the amount of weight gain, as was discovered by the researchers.
Insights from the Participants
The women themselves described the effect that psilocybin had on them:
“You are able to act in a way that maybe had felt unachievable before if you set the right intention,” one participant said.
“Things might not look that different from the outside, but they feel completely different from the inside,” another noted.
However, the researchers pointed out that psychedelic therapy may prove most effective as a part of a broader treatment paradigm since anorexia is a multifaceted condition, as reported by HealthDay.
Further, mammoth and well-regulated trials that encompass neuroimaging and political genome propitiation are worth asserting, and they can adopt this innovative concept and work twice as hard to emphasize the curative efficacy of psilocybin.