September 30, 2011

from PreventDisease Website

A single high dose of the hallucinogen psilocybin, the active ingredient in so-called "magic mushrooms," was enough to bring about a measurable positive personality change lasting at least a year in nearly 60 percent of the 51 participants in a new study, according to the Johns Hopkins researchers who conducted it.
 

In 2006, Johns Hopkins University studied the spiritual effects of psilocybin in particular.

That is, they did not use mushrooms specifically (in fact, each individual mushroom piece can vary wildly in psilocybin and psilocin content.

The study involved 36 college-educated adults (average age of 46) who had never tried psilocybin nor had a history of drug use, and who had religious or spiritual interests. The participants were closely observed for eight-hour intervals in a laboratory while under the influence of psilocybin mushrooms.

One-third of the participants reported that the experience was the single most spiritually significant moment of their lives and more than two-thirds reported it was among the top five most spiritually significant experiences.

Two months after the study, 79% of the participants reported increased well-being or satisfaction; friends, relatives, and associates confirmed this.

There are approximately 190 species of psilocybin mushrooms and there is strong archaeological evidence for the use of psilocybin-containing mushrooms in ancient times.

From the late 1950s to the early 1970s, research was carried out exploring the use of hallucinogens to treat the existential anxiety, despair and isolation often associated with advanced-stage cancer. Those studies described critically ill individuals undergoing psychospiritual epiphanies, often with powerful and sustained improvement in mood and anxiety as well as diminished need for narcotic pain medication.

The current study found lasting change was evident in the part of the personality known as openness, which includes traits related to,

• imagination

• aesthetics

• feelings

• abstract ideas

• general broad-mindedness

Changes in these traits, measured on a widely used and scientifically validated personality inventory, were larger in magnitude than changes typically observed in healthy adults over decades of life experiences, the scientists say.

Researchers in the field say that after the age of 30, personality doesn't usually change significantly.

"Normally, if anything, openness tends to decrease as people get older," says study leader Roland R. Griffiths, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The study participants completed two to five eight-hour drug sessions, with consecutive sessions separated by at least three weeks.

Participants were informed they would receive a "moderate or high dose" of psilocybin during one of their drug sessions, but neither they nor the session monitors knew when.

During each session, participants were encouraged to lie down on a couch, use an eye mask to block external visual distraction, wear headphones through which music was played and focus their attention on their inner experiences.

Personality was assessed at screening, one to two months after each drug session and approximately 14 months after the last drug session. Griffiths says he believes the personality changes found in this study are likely permanent since they were sustained for over a year by many.

Nearly all of the participants in the new study considered themselves spiritually active (participating regularly in religious services, prayer or meditation). More than half had postgraduate degrees.

The sessions with the otherwise illegal hallucinogen were closely monitored and volunteers were considered to be psychologically healthy.

"We don't know whether the findings can be generalized to the larger population," Griffiths says.

Griffiths says lasting personality change is rarely looked at as a function of a single discrete experience in the laboratory.

In the study, the change occurred specifically in those volunteers who had undergone a "mystical experience," as validated on a questionnaire developed by early hallucinogen researchers and refined by Griffiths for use at Hopkins.

He defines "mystical experience" as among other things,

"a sense of interconnectedness with all people and things accompanied by a sense of sacredness and reverence."

Personality was measured on a widely used and scientifically validated personality inventory, which covers openness and the other four broad domains that psychologists consider the makeup of personality:

• neuroticism

• extroversion

• agreeableness

• conscientiousness

Only openness changed during the course of the study.

Griffiths says he believes psilocybin may have therapeutic uses.

He is currently studying whether the hallucinogen has a use in helping cancer patients handle the depression and anxiety that comes along with a diagnosis, and whether it can help longtime cigarette smokers overcome their addiction.

"There may be applications for this we can't even imagine at this point," he says. "It certainly deserves to be systematically studied."