- Mice given psilocybin showed less pain sensitivity for weeks after treatment.
- Chronic pain can change connections in the brain, but so does psilocybin
- The two authors of the study work for a company aiming to promote the drug for pain
- Read More: Do Magic Mushrooms Really Cure Depression? The jury is still out.
A new study suggests that injectable psilocybin, the so-called ‘magic mushroom’, can provide lasting relief from chronic pain.
A group of scientists at the University of Michigan found mice Animals given the psychedelic drug had significantly less pain for weeks compared to animals that did not.
These results suggest that the drug changes pathways in the brain, the study authors wrote.
Scientists suspect that many chronic pain conditions are the result of changes in the brain and spinal cord, not just the part of the body that is in pain.
Psilocybin may alter these pathways rather than treat symptoms.
In the new study, mice were given small injections of formaldehyde in their legs to simulate chronic pain.
Such injections can cause an elevated sensation for a month or more, even in non-injected legs.
So while this pain is not the same as someone with a back injury or other chronic pain, it is one way scientists study chronic pain.
The lab animals were given a low-dose psilocybin injection, a high-dose injection, or an innocuous saline-placebo to confirm whether the drug was responsible for the observed effects.
The low-dose group received 1mg per kilogram of body weight, the equivalent of a microdose, and the high-dose group received 10mg per kilogram, the hallucinogenic dose.
Over the next month, the scientists regularly exposed them to uncomfortable foot pricks or a hot plate under their feet and recorded how long it took them to show discomfort.
Compared with rats’ pain responses recorded before injection, high- and low-dose psilocybin rats were significantly less sensitive to foot pain.
On some days, the high-dose rats were smaller than the low-dose rats, but their results were generally similar.
The heat was a different story.
Psilocybin-treated mice did not significantly improve thermal sensitivity compared to untreated mice.
This may be because psilocybin does not help this type of pain.
The authors of the study wrote that the oven was too hot (126.5 degrees Fahrenheit or 52.5 degrees Celsius) to provide more pain relief.
Most importantly, rats that were not given formaldehyde injections did not show any difference in pain after receiving psilocybin, suggesting that the drug helped animals with chronic pain in particular.
The results were published today in the journal Current biologyAdding to the growing body of scientific research is providing insight into the healing potential of psilocybin.
Studies have shown that the drug is somewhat effective in treating depression, and it can also help people stop drinking or smoking when other methods have failed.
But the only evidence is anecdotal for its many reported benefits, such as pain relief.
So, this new work is part of a growing scientific effort to catalog and monitor what mushrooms can and cannot do.
Like most research on psilocybin, the results of this study were mixed – the drug only helped with one type of pain.
The researchers note that their results have some limitations.
For example, these trials looked at inflammation, so future studies should evaluate other types of pain, such as nerve pain.
The study was not designed to explain exactly how and why psilocybin affects pain. Therefore, it is not clear whether the hallucinogenic properties of psilocybin are responsible for these effects, or if something else is acting in the mice’s body to reduce their pain.
However, more research is needed before treating human illness with psilocybin.
Additionally, two of the seven scientists behind the study work for Tripp Therapeutics. This San Diego, California-based company is researching psilocybin to treat many pain conditions as well as binge eating.
In other words, some scientists working on the research are interested in the positive findings of money. Tripp’s stock price has hovered below $0.12 per share all year.
This does not mean that the results are not reliable.
But good scientific practices say that other laboratories, including those without financial interest, should be able to reproduce the results if the treatment is effective.