It was like a space shuttle launch…that gives way to the weightlessness and majesty of space…” These are the words of Patrick Mettes, a participant in a recent clinical trial looking into the effects of psilocybin – the active component of aptly named ‘magic’ mushrooms – on depression and anxiety in cancer.

The findings of this study, conducted at New York University, are published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, side-by-side with those of a similar trial from John Hopkins University. The results from the two groups were remarkably similar, and showed that a single high dose of psilocybin was successful in lifting anxiety and depression in patients with advanced cancer for six months or longer.

Psilocybin is a hallucinogenic compound that, similar to the related recreational drug LSD, acts on serotonin receptors in regions of the brain responsible for non-verbal imagery and emotion. Overall, this produces a dream-like state lasting up to eight hours, which users often describe as allowing them to break free from negativity and intransigence.

The majority of participants in the high-dose group reported having “profoundly meaningful and spiritual experiences” during the treatment session, which relieved their despair and caused them to re-evaluate life and death, ultimately leading to a lasting improvement in the quality of their lives. Research on the medical utility of hallucinogens like psilocybin actually began in the 1950s and by 1965, over 2000 papers had recorded positive results for treating patients with a range of psychiatric disorders from depression to addiction, with no serious adverse effects. However, as recreational misuse increased among hipster youths of the sixties counter-culture, governments across the globe issued a moratorium on research, eventually banning psilocybin use altogether. Whilst in the UK, psilocybin remains a Class A illegal drug, the recent waiving of prohibition laws for medical studies has led to a resurgence of scientific interest over the past decade.

An estimated 40% of cancer patients develop some form of depression or anxiety, which can in turn lead to reduced treatment adherence, prolonged hospitalization and early death. Currently, such syndromes are treated with anti-depressants and/or psychological approaches, with limited efficacy. Both US studies involved larger patient groups than previous psilocybin trials (29 and 51 participants at NYU and JHU respectively) and used a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled approach – the “Gold Standard” of intervention-based studies. And the findings are pretty conclusive – the single psilocybin dose led to an immediate reduction in clinician-scored depression and anxiety, with long-term improvements in life meaning and optimism reported by 80% of patients. The therapeutic effect was closely tied with the transcendent nature of patients’ experiences.

Yet these results are not dissimilar to those of earlier studies by Professor Roland Griffiths (who led the JHU team) using healthy volunteers, in which psilocybin induced enduring positive changes in life outlook and even personality, suggesting that psychedelic treatment could be applicable to a variety of disorders. Ongoing research by Griffiths is analysing the efficacy of psilocybin for alleviating nicotine addiction, whilst the therapeutic potential of other psychedelics, including MDMA and LSD, is also under investigation. The results from the two groups were published with no less than ten commentaries from lead scientists in the fields of psychiatry and palliative care, who all heavily back further research. “These findings, the most profound to date in the medical use of psilocybin, indicate it could be more effective at treating serious psychiatric diseases than traditional pharmaceutical approaches, and without having to take a medication every day”, said George Greer, director of the Heffer Research Institute, which funded the trials.

So might our archaic drug policies finally undergo an overhaul in the name of scientific progress? It’s unlikely. Despite the ever-growing phenomenon of drug misuse in modern society, both the public and governments remain suspicious of psychedelic research. The popular image of psychedelics is tarnished not only by their association with today’s ‘rave’ scene, but by a nefarious past; classical hallucinogens were studied historically by the US military for use as incapacitating agents, and by the CIA as interrogation devices. Furthermore, any research exploring alternative states of consciousness faces opposition from within psychiatry itself, with such experiments often branded as ‘mysticism’.

Hence in order to move forward, psychedelic research must tread carefully. Although hallucinogens are considered non-addictive and relatively safe physiologically, their administration does involve certain psychological risks, and requires a highly controlled clinical setting, supervised by professional observers. Whether the significant time and cost of this support is an investment that our already strained NHS can afford remains questionable. But as the nation faces an unprecedented epidemic of mental illness and dire shortcomings in available treatments options, a thorough and dispassionate consideration of medical psychedelics, uninfluenced by social and political pressures, may just be a public health imperative.