A study by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine has found that two doses of psilocybin reduced heavy drinking by 83 per cent when combined with psychotherapy.
A number of studies have posited psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy as a potentially efficacious treatment for addiction.
This latest study, published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, is the first placebo-controlled trial to explore psilocybin as a treatment for excessive alcohol consumption.
For the investigation, 93 men and women with alcohol dependence were randomly assigned to receive either two doses of psilocybin or an antihistamine placebo. Neither the researchers nor the study participants knew which medication they received, and all participants received up to 12 psychotherapy sessions before and after the treatments.
Within an eight-month period from the start of their treatment, those who were given psilocybin reduced heavy drinking by 83 per cent relative to their drinking before the study began, while, those who had received antihistamine reduced their drinking by 51 per cent.
The study also showed that eight months after their first dose, 48 per cent of those who received psilocybin stopped drinking altogether compared with 24 per cent of the placebo group.
Senior author of the study and psychiatrist, Michael Bogenschutz, MD, director of the NYU Langone Center for Psychedelic Medicine, stated: “Our findings strongly suggest that psilocybin therapy is a promising means of treating alcohol use disorder, a complex disease that has proven notoriously difficult to manage.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that excessive alcohol use kills roughly 95,000 Americans every year, often due to binge drinking or liver disease. It is also linked to enormous economic and workplace losses, injury accidents, and impaired learning, memory, and mental health, said Bogenschutz.
After the study, the participants were asked to report the percentage of heavy drinking days they experienced during weeks 5 to 36 of the study, and also provided hair and fingernail samples to confirm that they had not been drinking. All participants were then offered a third session of psilocybin to ensure that those who previously received a placebo had the chance to be treated with the psychedelic drug.
Current methods to prevent excessive alcohol use and dependency include psychological counselling, supervised detoxification programmes, and certain drug regimens that dampen cravings.
Previous research has already identified psilocybin treatment as an effective means of alleviating anxiety and depression in people with the most severe forms of cancer. Earlier research by Bogenschutz and others suggested that psilocybin could serve as a potential therapy for alcohol use disorder and other addictions.
Bogenschutz continued: “As research into psychedelic treatment grows, we find more possible applications for mental health conditions.
“Beyond alcohol use disorder, this approach may prove useful in treating other addictions such as cigarette smoking and abuse of cocaine and opioids.”
Bogenschutz says the research team next plans to conduct a larger, multicentre trial under an FDA IND sponsored by B.More Inc.
However, Bogenschutz also cautions that more work needs to be done to document psilocybin’s effects and to clarify appropriate dosing before the drug is ready for widespread clinical use, noting that researchers have started such trials.
The researchers said that most study participants experience profound alterations in perception, emotions, and sense of self, often including experiences which are felt to be of great personal and spiritual significance.
Because the drug raises blood pressure and heart rate and can cause incapacitating and sometimes overwhelming psychological effects, researchers caution that it should only be used in carefully controlled settings and in conjunction with psychological evaluation and preparation.
Funding for the study was provided by the Heffter Research Institute and individual donations from Carey and Claudia Turnbull, Dr Efrem Nulman, Rodrigo Niño and Cody Swift.
Bogenschutz has received research funds from and served as a consultant to Mind Medicine, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, B. More, AJNA Labs, Beckley Psytech, Journey Colab, and Bright Minds Biosciences. None of these organizations were involved in funding the current study.
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