Substance Abuse during Pregnancy
“Bert” Bertis Britt Little in Drugs and Pregnancy, 2022
Psilocybin is a naturally occurring hallucinogenic alkaloid present in several species of psychedelic mushrooms belonging to the genus Psilocybe. P. mexicana is the classic source of the drug and is known as the magic mushroom. It is most commonly found in Mexico, particularly in the Valley of Oaxaca, and southern Texas. However, other species occur north of Mexico in the southern United States and elsewhere, particularly in dairy pastures in the spring. Psilocybin typically grows in highly organic media, such as cow feces (cow patties) and usually in the springtime. Psilocybin mushrooms are eaten, used as a food additive, a tea, or a drink additive for hallucinogenic effects. The hallucinogenic effects usually last six to eight hours, although some sources quote times as short as an hour. Ingestion of these hallucinogenic mushrooms has become a popular form of substance abuse among some adolescents and young adults (Schwartz and Smith, 1988). The effects of psilocybin ingestion include hallucinogenic visions, altered states of consciousness, and a pronounced pyrogenic effect. Several surveys have indicated that mushroom use is more prevalent among high school and college students than is the LSD use.
Fungi and Water
Chuong Pham-Huy, Bruno Pham Huy in Food and Lifestyle in Health and Disease, 2022
Species of genus Psilocybe are known due to their psychedelic effects caused by psilocybin (96–97). Some mushrooms containing psylocibin are: P. semilanceata, P. Mexicana, P. bohemica, P. cubensis, and P. baeocistis (96–97). They are commonly known as ‘magic mushrooms’. Magic mushrooms are hallucinogens, but cannot cause addiction. The symptoms of intoxication occur 30 minutes after ingestion of fresh or dried mushroom and start with anxiety, nausea, vertigo, and asthenia. Neurosensorial symptoms consist of visual problems (mydriasis), disorientation, motor incoordination, tachycardia, and hypertension (96–97). Recovery is complete 4 to 12 hours after ingestion. The need of hospitalization is rare and in exceptional cases myocardial infarction may occur in adult patients, while children may present hyperthermia, seizures, and coma (96–97).
Hallucinogens
G. Hussein Rassool in Alcohol and Drug Misuse, 2017
Psilocybin (magic mushrooms) is the hallucinogenic chemical that occurs in more than 180 species of fresh or dried mushrooms. Psilocybin or psilocin mushrooms have a long history of use in Mexico and are one of the most available natural psychedelics. In its pure form, psilocybin is also a white powder, but it is usually sold as dried mushrooms or in substances made from mushrooms. International varieties are becoming more widely available through specialist shops and the Internet. Psilocybin is from the same chemical family as LSD so its effects are similar. They can be eaten fresh, cooked or brewed into a “tea”. It usually takes about 30 to 50 mushrooms to produce a hallucinogenic experience similar to that experienced with LSD. Physical effects of psilocybin are usually experienced within 20 minutes of ingestion and can last for six hours. Other hallucinogens include psilocybin (liberty cap mushrooms), Amanita Muscaria (fly agaric mushrooms) and mescaline which is derived from the peyote cactus.
A Mixed-Method Analysis of Persisting Effects Associated with Positive Outcomes Following Ibogaine Detoxification
Published in Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 2018
Alan K. Davis, Elise Renn, Austin-Marley Windham-Herman, Martin Polanco, Joseph P. Barsuglia
Persisting subjective effects of ibogaine were assessed using a modified version of the Persisting Effects Questionnaire (Doblin 1991; Griffiths et al. 2006; Pahnke 1969). This questionnaire was originally used to measure changes in attitudes, moods, behavior, and spiritual experience in several studies that evaluated the lasting effects of psilocybin (Griffiths et al. 2008, 2011). We modified the 145-item questionnaire used by Griffiths et al. (2006) to reduce response burden and eliminate item redundancy. Specifically, the original questionnaire included items that have similar content but are measured in two ways as a function of valence (i.e., whether an item being measured has increased and whether the item being measured has decreased). Therefore, we collapsed all of these pairs of opposite valence items into one item each with a response option that captured whether the item being measured had decreased or increased (from −2 “Significantly decreased” to +2 “Significantly increased”) since the participant’s ibogaine treatment. This reduced the item pool from 145 to 70 items. An additional 24 items were excluded from the questionnaire because they were ambiguous (e.g., “Your life has a diminished dynamic quality”) or redundant with other items (e.g., “Your experience of sacredness in daily life has increased” and “You experience profound sacredness more frequently”). The remaining 46 items comprised the modified version of the questionnaire (see Table 2 for items).
The therapeutic potential of psilocybin: a systematic review
Published in Expert Opinion on Drug Safety, 2022
Jan van Amsterdam, Wim van den Brink
This brings us to the role of preparatory and integrating psychotherapy sessions in psilocybin treatments. The hallmark of contemporary evidence-based psychotherapy is being open to novel and more constructive ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving. These properties of psilocybin, i.e. enhanced cognitive and emotional flexibility, may therefore constitute the psychological mechanism mediating psilocybin-assisted antidepressant and anxiolytic effects [47]. In most studies, no detailed description of the psychotherapeutic part of the psilocybin treatment is provided although it is generally assumed that psychotherapeutic support in preparatory sessions before and psychotherapeutic support during the psychedelic sessions facilitate positive and transformative experiences and (non-directive) psychotherapeutic follow-up sessions are needed to integrate these experiences and thus establish stable positive changes [48,49]. Most clinical psilocybin studies were performed with some form of supportive psychotherapy as an integral part of the psilocybin treatment, but the added value of (certain types of) psychotherapy has never been empirically tested. Direct comparison of psilocybin with and without psychotherapy are probably no longer ethically acceptable, but studies comparing psilocybin with different types and different intensities of psychotherapy are both feasible and needed to establish the optimal psychotherapy-supported psilocybin treatment.
Psilocybine services in Oregon: a call for awareness among clinical toxicologists
Published in Clinical Toxicology, 2023
Drug interactions with psilocybine also represent a toxicological risk factor. Under the final rules, the use of lithium in the previous 30 days is the only absolute drug contraindication that would preclude a potential client from receiving psilocybine services. This contraindication was based upon a published study using self-reported data from anonymous website surveys [8]. A recently published systematic review of drug-drug interactions between psychiatric medications and psilocybine acknowledged the paucity of clinical data in the published literature and the limited ability to extrapolate results to real-world settings [9]. The risk of serotonin toxicity appears to be low with psilocybine (a 5-HT2A agonist) [10, 11], but there is a large knowledge gap with regard to the effects in people taking other medications.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Mescaline
- Psilocin
- Psilocybe
- Psychedelic Drug
- Prodrug
- Psilocybe Azurescens
- Psilocybe Semilanceata
- Psilocybe Cyanescens
- Lsd
- N,N-Dimethyltryptamine