Inverse - 🍄 Psilocybin's medical potential

TGIF	August 26 2022

For decades, research on psilocybin and other psychedelics has been stalled. Once a promising treatment for a number of mental health conditions, psychedelics have only recently been granted the attention they deserve. This week, a pair of studies illustrates the psychoactive drugs' potential.

One study, published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, found that psilocybin-assisted therapy — where a person is given a dose of the psychoactive drug under the supervision of a trained psychologist and then guided through an accompanying therapy session — led to an averaged 83 percent reduction in heavy drinking among the participants. While the study was small, if it holds up in larger trials, it could play a key role in treating alcohol use disorder. The second study found that those who experienced near-death events had similar shifts in mindsets to those who experienced psychedelic trips.

Scientists are still piecing together the underlying brain mechanisms that occur when people use these psychoactive drugs, but these studies and ones like it will help them better understand the drugs and how to use them to treat various mental health conditions.

What's New

Psychedelics

Mind and Body

Psychedelic trips and near-death experiences result in similar shifts in mindset

In 2014, Tracy Morgan was in a car accident that nearly took his life. The former Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock cast member suffered near paralyzing injuries in the accident that killed his friend James McNair. In 2019, he told Oprah Winfrey how the crash fundamentally changed his attitude.

“The way I am with people, something’s just different. I find myself saying, ‘I love you’ 200 times a day to strangers.”

Such shifts in attitude about life and death are common among people who have had near-death experiences. Studies have found that those who describe themselves as having experienced near-death events have lower ratings in metrics assessing fear of death and higher ratings for belief in a happy afterlife.

Similar changes in attitude are often described by people who have psychedelic drug experiences. For example, a pivotal 2016 study that looked at the effect of psilocybin treatments in terminal cancer patients found that patients who took the drug had dramatic “increases in quality of life, life meaning, and optimism, and decreases in death anxiety.”

But what do near-death events and psychedelic experiences have in common? That’s what Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine researchers sought to parse. Their results, published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One, raise intriguing questions about what shifts our attitude toward life and death.

News	Mind and Body

Psilocybin therapy reduces heavy drinking by up to 83 percent in landmark trial

The first randomized, placebo-controlled trial evaluating psilocybin-assisted therapy as a treatment for alcohol use disorder has yielded striking results.

The study, published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, outlines how researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine determined that psilocybin — one of the psychoactive compounds in magic mushrooms — combined with psychotherapy could reduce heavy drinking in people with alcohol use disorder by as much as 83 percent.

The study has profound implications for the estimated 14.5 million people in the United States with alcohol use disorder. It also furthers decades of slow, steady work to research psilocybin — a drug that’s currently illegal in most states as well as at the federal level — as a treatment for everything from depression to substance use disorders.

Marvel

Television

She-Hulk is fixing the MCU’s blandest villain

For all the faults in Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there’s one part of the storytelling machine that’s shown marked improvement: The villains.

From Agatha in WandaVision to Wanda herself in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, this era of the MCU has had remarkably compelling and even original villains. That’s no small feat, especially considering the franchise’s roots in pre-existing comics.

But the continuing nature of the MCU means Phase Four has also allowed the franchise to revisit past villains and afford them a second life at depth and, perhaps, pathos. The best version of this potential future so far is seen in She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, with Tim Roth returning as Emil Blonsky, a.k.a. the Abomination.

Learn more

Mark your calendar

Gaming

Inverse’s most anticipated games of 2023

As we approach the end of 2022, it’s time to start looking ahead to 2023, which is shaping up to be a massive year for video games. With a lengthy list of titles slated to launch that year (some of which were delayed from 2022), there’s no shortage of games to look forward.

Sure, most games we’re excited about don’t have specific release dates just yet, but that doesn’t make the lineup any less exciting. From massive RPGs to space epics, sequels, and even a couple of remakes sprinkled in, these are the most anticipated games of 2023.

See the full list

Tech	Innovation

This high-tech contact lens could diagnose cancer — and maybe treat it, too

A cancer diagnosis can be extremely challenging. To make matters worse, the diagnostic process itself is often highly invasive and, at times, downright painful. Biopsies, for example, can involve deep incisions and stitches. But recent research aims to develop techniques that make that process easier, quicker, and more comfortable.

In a study published this month in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, researchers used a commonly-used product — a contact lens — and tweaked it to detect cancer.

The proof-of-concept study has so far only been tested in cells in a lab, but the researchers behind it are optimistic that it could one day transform the way doctors diagnose cancer by offering a speedy, non-invasive option that is sorely needed.

Learn more

Mars

Space

New evidence points to a shockingly violent origin for Jezero crater

A huge swath of Jezero Crater's floor is made of once-waterlogged volcanic rock, according to recently-published data from the Perseverance rover.

The chemical reactions between the volcanic rock and the groundwater that flowed through it could have powered subterranean life on Mars — while simultaneously preserving chemical evidence that it once existed. Perseverance has taken samples from two different rock formations, which may return to Earth on the eventual Mars Sample Return mission.

"These rocks... record an ancient period when impact cratering, volcanism, and water were actively shaping the surface of the planet," wrote California Institute of Technology planetary scientist Kenneth Farley and his colleagues in their paper in Science.

Meanwhile...

Understand the world through 9 images captured this week

'Aquaman 2' is delayed again — but it’s not all bad news

'She-Hulk' just confirmed Wolverine is already in the MCU

'House of the Dragon' just made one of 'Game of Thrones' best storylines even better

Today in history: The Krakatoa volcano in Indonesia began to erupt August 26, 1883. It's estimated 36,000 people were killed by the eruption and the resulting tsunami.

Song of the day: "Acid Rain," Chance The Rapper

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Inverse - 🍄 Psilocybin's medical potential

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