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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hi

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Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lauren Vogel bomb here with a classic episode

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Speaker 1: for you today. Lots of mental health issues can be

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Speaker 1: treated by pretty conventional therapies or combinations of therapies, but

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Speaker 1: some patients experience more severe cases of things like depression,

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Speaker 1: and in those cases, experimental therapies like psychedelic drugs are

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Speaker 1: being researched. Hey there, brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel bam here.

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Speaker 1: Depression treatment is better now than ever before thanks to

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Speaker 1: a variety of prescription drug options and improved therapy techniques,

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Speaker 1: but in some cases these proven therapies fall short. However,

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Speaker 1: magic mushrooms just might be the key to giving those

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Speaker 1: with depressions some much needed relief, according to a recent

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Speaker 1: study by researchers at Imperial College London published in the

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Speaker 1: journal Scientific Reports. The albeit small study looked at the

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Speaker 1: effects of psilocybin on nineteen patients for whom conventional depression

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Speaker 1: therapies ailed. Psilocybin is the psychoactive compound that is naturally

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Speaker 1: present in two hundred types of magic mushrooms. The researchers

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Speaker 1: described the results as rapid and sustained. In fact, within weeks,

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Speaker 1: the patients reported fewer depression symptoms, with several of them

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Speaker 1: describing a brain reset. This reportedly lasts for up to

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Speaker 1: five weeks post treatment. Other studies have shown positive effects

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Speaker 1: from using LSD and m d M, a the active

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Speaker 1: ingredient in ecstasy, to treat some mental illnesses, but this

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Speaker 1: is the first study to look at the effect of

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Speaker 1: psilocybin on depression. Dr Robin Carhart Harris, head of psychedelic

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Speaker 1: research at Imperial and leader of the study, said in

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Speaker 1: a press release, we have shown for the first time

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Speaker 1: clear changes in brain activity in depressed people treated the

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Speaker 1: psilocybin after failing to respond to conventional treatments. Several of

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Speaker 1: our patients described feeling reset after the treatment and often

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Speaker 1: used computer analogies. For example, one set he felt like

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Speaker 1: his brain had been defragged like a computer hard drive,

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Speaker 1: and another said he felt rebooted. Psilocybin maybe giving these

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Speaker 1: individuals the temporary kickstart they need to break out of

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Speaker 1: their depressive states, and these imaging results do tentatively support

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Speaker 1: a reset analogy. Similar brain effects to these have been

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Speaker 1: seen with electro convulsive therapy, which by the way, is

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Speaker 1: not as scary as it looks in movies and can

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Speaker 1: be a real help to those for whom other therapies

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Speaker 1: don't work. In the study, participants were given two doses

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Speaker 1: of psilocybin a week apart. Functional MRI is done after

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Speaker 1: each dose. Showed reduced blood flow in certain areas of

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Speaker 1: the brain, particularly the amygdala, which is credited with processing fear, stress,

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Speaker 1: and emotional responses. Greater stability in a different brain network

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Speaker 1: was also revealed. The tests appear to show that people

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Speaker 1: undergo a temporary disintegration of brain networks during a trip,

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Speaker 1: but reintegration follows soon after. Psilocybin has been used for

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Speaker 1: medicinal purposes for centuries and became a popular recreational drug

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Speaker 1: beginning in the nineteen sixties. Researchers warned that people should

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Speaker 1: not attempt to self medicate, as the experimental treatment was

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Speaker 1: conducted in tandem with other therapy. They also note these

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Speaker 1: small size of the study grew and the absence of

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Speaker 1: a control group as cautions before making applications to the

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Speaker 1: general population. However, the study author's right accumulating evidence suggests

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Speaker 1: that psilocybin with accompanying psychological support can be used safely

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Speaker 1: to treat a range of psychiatric conditions including end of

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Speaker 1: life anxiety and depression, alcohol and tobacco addiction, obsessive compulsive disorder, and,

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Speaker 1: most recently from our group, treatment resistant major depression. They

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Speaker 1: planned test psilocybin against a major antidepressant in another trial.

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Speaker 1: Despite these positive results, psilocybin can also cause some pretty

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Speaker 1: crazy side effects like panic attacks, paranoia, strange reactions, and outbursts. Also,

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Speaker 1: eating the wrong mushroom to get high may result in poisoning,

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Speaker 1: so seriously, don't undertake this treatment on your own. Today's

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Speaker 1: episode was written by A. Leah Hoyt and produced by

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Speaker 1: Tristan McNeil and Tyler Clang. For more on this lots

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Speaker 1: of other topics about brain stuff, visit how staffords dot com.

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Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio or more podcasts.

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