Found My Fitness: Roland Griffiths, Ph.D. on Psilocybin, Psychedelic Therapies & Mystical Experiences

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Some Background

• Roland has been doing research with mood altering drugs for over 40 years
• About 20 years ago, he took up a mediation practice which really got him interested in altered states of consciousness and spiritual experiences
• This meditation practice reacquainted him with older psychedelic research (LSD, psilocybin, DMT etc.)

An Important Study

• His group published a study ~10 years ago involving healthy volunteers receiving psilocybin
  • Note – psilocybin is the active ingredient in magic mushrooms
• They found that when people are carefully selected, prepared, and then administered the drug, the resulting effects are profound and deeply meaningful to the individuals
• Months later, participants say it was among the most personally meaningful and spiritually significant experiences of their lives

How does psilocybin compare to other drugs?

• Effects from psilocybin are much more salient and long lasting
• People feel they have learned something personally important and it has information value moving forward

How are his studies run?

• ~8 hours of prep the day before to make participants feel comfortable
• On the session day, they take a capsule of synthsized psilocybin
• Participants start by laying down on a coach with eye shades while listening to music
• They are then advised to direct their attention inward on their inner experiences
• There are 2 guides to provide reassurance if needed, on the off chance anxiety or fear arises
• How are participants chosen for studies?
  • Extensive medical history screening
  • People are screened out even if they have a second degree relative with history of psychotic disorder
• How are placebos given in the studies?
  • Participants are told they will be given 1 of 11 different psychoactive compounds
  • Magnitude of the experiences tends to be correlated with expectations, but expectancy does not account for full effect
  • Control substances may be something like ritalin or very low does psilocybin

What kind of experiences do people have on psychedelics?

• Quite varied
• Autobiographical experiences where they remember childhood issues
• Reflection on current relationships
• Aesthetic experiences where people get involved with imagery/color

Core Features of a Psychedelic Experience

• Interconnectedness of all people and things, a sense of universal unity
• The experience has an authenticity to it, a high truth value. People claim it’s more real/true than everyday life.
• Sense of positive mood
• Trancendance of time/space, present state awareness.
• People tend to experience the mystery of conciousness
• It’s not unusual for people to value the experience for months to come

Psilocybin, Cancer, and End of Life Depression

A Stand Still

• In the late 1960’s, clinical work with psychedelics came to a stand still due to government regulation
• Psychedelics became a Schedule I compound
• Media led people to believe the risks of these compounds were far greater than the benefits

Psilocybin to Treat Depression in Otherwise Healthy Individuals

• Psilocybin is a seretonergic agonist – actives 5-HT2a receptors (it binds to this receptor)
• As this is just a single dose, this is a very different approach than typical depression treatments which involve taking antidepressants every day
• Perhaps there is a link between the psilocybin and increased neurogenesis (the growth of new neurons) – when you grow new neurons, you have to break a connection between old neurons to form a new connection. There might possibly be a selective break of the traumatic neuron connections.
• Currently. Roland is discussing a Phase III clinical trial with the FDA for treatment of depression with psilocybin
  • If efficacy is demonstrated, there is potential for approvability

Ketamine and Depression

• Ketamine is dissociative anisthetic
• Has some psychedelic like properties
• Ketamine has been shown to have very rapid anti-depressive effects in treatment resistant depression, although they are short lived

Pslocybin Appears to Decrease Activity in the Default Mode Network (DMN)

• Why is it reduced? – Reduced blood flow to that part of the brain, and reduced connectivity among neurons
• Activity in the default mode network is increased in patients experiencing clinical depression
• The default mode network (DMN) is typically activated during rumination, or overthinking
• The DMN is thought to be responsible for self processing, i.e. ideas that relate to a sense of self
• Activty in the DMN is decreased in long term meditators, so psilocybin is like mediation in that regard
• This is why psilocybin brings about such a present state of awareness

Is neuroplasticty affected by psilocybin?

• Has to be
• Once people have a psychelic experience, they report having an altered sense of self and a greater connection to the universe
• Core personality changes, people become more open
• The way users see themselves changes as well

Psilocybin to Treat Addictions

• One pilot study showed psilocybin was effective in overcoming smoking addition, 60% of the treatment group were still abstinent a year afterward
• There is work going on involving treating cocaine dependence with psychadelics at the University of Alabama
• Possible treatment for PTSD, OCD, eating disorders

Risks Associated with Taking Psilocybin

• A large survey study was recently published by Roland and his group. They asked 2,000 people if they had ever had a bad experience with psilocybin mushrooms.
• Around 10% of people say they may have put themselves or others at risk of physical harm during a pscilocybin experience.
• A very small percentage say they have enduring psychological problems
• People who already have psychological disorders may be more sensitive to the negative effects of psilocybin
• Sometimes, the bad trip experiences can be of very short duration and open into experiences of great insight/transendence
• Roland says about 30% of his study volunteers describe feeling significant fear/anxiety at least for some duration of time

Does dose play a role in effects?

• Roland has given up to 30mg psilocybin per 70kg of body weight (30mg/70kg) in his studies and doses as low as 5mg/70kg
• Probability of mystical type experiences and challenging experiences increase as a function of dose
• Probabilty of very difficult experiences increases significantly between 20-30mg/70kg of body weight
• In the cancer study, the dose was 22mg/70kg

“Psilocybin is mediation on steroids”

• There is such an abrupt shift in the nature of conciousness that it wakes people up and shows them that their normative cognitive process is only 1 type of many
• However, it is not a substitution for mediation, because it doesn’t lead to any stability of the awareness state

Roland’s Meditation Practice

• Roland meditates daily
• Studies show there are gene expression changes after only 5 minutes of meditating 
• Meditators tend to have longer telomeres. Stress accelerates telomere shortening