Exploring the Risks and Benefits of Psychedelic Therapy

In the midst of a battle with cancer, Kathy Kral found herself facing another diagnosis: major depression.

So, Kathy signed up for a clinical study to see if psilocybin – the psychedelic compound found in “magic mushrooms” – could help her confront her fears about cancer and death, as well as her deepest inner demons.

Featuring Kathleen Kral, Manish Agrawal, and Norma Stevens.

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LINKS

Can Psychedelic Therapy Offer a Sense of Peace for the Dying?

The Sunstone Psilocybin Playlist patients listen to during their psychedelic trips

Citations

• In the psilocybin study Kathy Kral participated in, 80% of participants experienced a significant reduction in depression, and half were no longer depressed at all. These results were persistent even a year and a half after their psilocybin sessions.
• Psychedelics cause hallucinations because they compromise the part of the brain that processes what you see, and promote communication between different parts of your brain that usually don’t talk to each other.
• Risks associated with psilocybin range from nausea and increased heart rate, to Hallucination Persisting Perception Disorder where people continue having hallucinations for months or years after the trip has ended. But magic mushrooms had the lowest rates of associated emergency room visits out of any drug surveyed by the Global Drug Survey in 2019, 2020, and 2021. And researchers have found that psychedelics are not addictive in lab animals, and the lethal dose of psilocybin is so high that overdoses are impractical and rare. 

CREDITS

Host: Nate Hegyi
Reported, produced, and mixed by Felix Poon
Edited by Taylor Quimby with help from Rebecca Lavoie, Nate Hegyi, Justine Paradis, and Jeongyoon Han.
Rebecca Lavoie is our Executive Producer
Special thanks to Evan Craig, Heather Honstein, Kathryn Tucker, and Erinn Baldeshwiler.
Music for this episode by Blue Dot Sessions, Pawan Krishna, the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra, and Paul De Bra.
Theme music by Breakmaster Cylinder.

Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.