Two doses of psilocybin pills, along with psychotherapy, helped people with alcohol use disorder reduce drinking for at least eight months after their first treatments, results from the largest clinical trial of its kind show.
— can be a more effective alternative to addiction and mental health treatments. Bogenschutz and his team specifically set out to test whether or not psilocybin, in addition to sessions of therapy, could cut cravings and help people with alcohol use disorder stay sober.
“You take the pills to wipe it out, and it’s gone,” said Kostas, who has stayed sober since the trial and founded a nonprofit organization for psychedelic mental health research. “Everyone’s experience is different,” Bogenschutz said. “People’s brains appear to be able to kind of tailor the effects of the experience, depending on what they come to the situation with and what they need out of the experience.”
Past research has homed in on certain brain circuits related to addiction that may be most susceptible to intervention, “but the brain is holistic,” said Wolfgang Sommer, the deputy scientific director of the Clinic of Addictive Behavior and Addiction Medicine at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany, noting that psychedelic therapy likely has widespread effects on the brain.
Bogenschutz said psilocybin-assisted therapy won't be for everyone. Still, some patients could benefit greatly. Sommer said that despite its limitations, the new trial’s ability to drastically curb heavy drinking days is “really very impressive.”Bogenschutz is emphatic that psychedelics like psilocybin should be used under medical supervision, with trained therapists to prepare patients for experiences “that can be extremely intense and challenging, in some cases."
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