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Medicine

Psilocybin and Migraine: First of Its Kind Trial Reports Promising Results (newatlas.com) 61

Posted by BeauHD from the deeply-encouraging dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from New Atlas: A first-of-its-kind exploratory study, led by researchers from Yale School of Medicine, has found a single dose of the psychedelic psilocybin can reduce migraine frequency by 50 percent for a least two weeks. The preliminary trial was small, with follow-up work necessary to validate the results, but the promising findings suggest great potential for psychedelics to treat migraines and cluster headaches.

A new study, published in the journal Neurotherapeutics, is offering the first double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over study on the effects of a moderate psilocybin dose on migraine frequency and severity. The research is only preliminary and small but its results are deeply encouraging. Ten migraine sufferers were recruited for the trial. Each subject completed two sessions, one with a placebo and one with a moderate psilocybin dose. Headache diaries were used to track headache frequency and severity in the two weeks leading up to, and following, each experimental session. "Compared to placebo, a single administration of psilocybin reduced migraine frequency by about half over the two weeks measured," explains corresponding author on the new study Emmanuelle Schindler, in an email to New Atlas. "In addition, when migraine attacks did occur in those two weeks, pain intensity and functional impairment during attacks were reduced by approximately 30 percent each."

Perhaps the most intriguing finding from this small study was the lack of any correlation between the subjective strength of the psychedelic experience and the therapeutic effect. Prior trials using psilocybin to treat depression or addiction have suggested the overwhelming magnitude of a psychedelic experience seems to be fundamentally entwined with its therapeutic efficacy. So essentially, the more powerful the experience the better the result. But unexpectedly, this migraine/psilocybin trial did not detect that association. In fact, those subjects reporting the highest scores on a self-reported altered state of consciousness scale showed some of the smaller reductions in migraine burden. What this intriguingly suggests is that, in the case of psilocybin for migraine, it may be possible to separate out the drug's psychotropic effects from its therapeutic effects. This could be achieved either by exploring microdoses and sub-hallucinogenic doses, or even homing in on the mechanism by which the drug is helping prevent migraines and finding a new way to pharmacologically target it.
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Psilocybin and Migraine: First of Its Kind Trial Reports Promising Results More

Psilocybin and Migraine: First of Its Kind Trial Reports Promising Results

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  • How do you keep a psilocybin study double blind? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Oliver Heaviside ( 6159576 ) on Monday November 23, 2020 @08:31PM (#60759680)

    I don't have personal experience with psilocybin, but is the effect variable enough that those taking the placebo wouldn't have a pretty good idea that they just had a placebo?

    I'm genuinely curious how such a study would maintain its double-blind nature.

    (In true /. form, I barely read the summary, let alone the article...)

    • Re:How do you keep a psilocybin study double blind (Score:4, Funny)

      by zenlessyank ( 748553 ) on Monday November 23, 2020 @08:38PM (#60759700)

      Who cares? I have a headache now gimme some 'shrooms!

    • Re:How do you keep a psilocybin study double blind (Score:4, Interesting)

      by hey! ( 33014 ) on Monday November 23, 2020 @09:16PM (#60759790) Homepage Journal

      It's possible that the effective dose level is below what would produce psychedelic effects.

      Some people who are interested in nootropics use "microdoses" of LSD. The goal is to promote creative or more flexible thinking without any perceptible hallucinations.

      It's an intriguing idea, but so far as I know there's no scientific evidence to support or refute it. Most of the information out there is self-reports, which of course are useless. People who are up for this kind of self-experimentation probably aren't the idea subjects, either.

      • Just because it's not 'scientific', doesn't mean that hands-on testing can't be correct. After all, if there are potentially hundreds of compounds to try, why would people waste time microdosing LSD if it didn't work? If there is one thing that these self-improvement/productive nuts are it is tenacious!
      • Hmmm ... I wholeheartedly agree that self-reporting isn't gold-standard, neither is it useless. Try-by-fly is a classic method for drug researchers in both psychotropics as well as drugs like penicillin. Your usually well thought-out commentary seems to fall a little flat - or are you applying a dose of irony?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by pz ( 113803 )

      I read the abstract (the article is paywalled).

      Changes in migraine frequency in the 2 weeks after psilocybin were not correlated with the intensity of acute psychotropic effects during drug administration. .... This exploratory study suggests there is an enduring therapeutic effect in migraine headache after a single administration of psilocybin. The separation of acute psychotropic effects and lasting therapeutic effects is an important finding, urging further investigation into the mechanism underlying the clinical effects

      That pretty clearly implies that there were psychoactive effects experienced. So, yup, there's little point to doing the experiment double-blind since the patient is clearly unblinded by secondary effects. At least they used a cross-over structure (group A got the drugs for a period, then placebos; group B got placebos first and then the drugs).

    • The placebo group was put in a special room and spun around until they got dizzy, with weird lighting effects and music. At least that is what I would do!

    • A friend of mine has taken shrooms with me 3 times, the last double what I did, and he felt absolutely nothing. Once for his brother too. They're Italians, very Roman-looking.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      No one would know they were taking psilocybin directly. They'd just know they were taking a drug, and it could help with migraines, or it may not.

      And during drug trails, they don't know what the side effects are, so they ask the participants to report any side effects they feel. So if the dose is high enough to feel the effects, they'd report feeling rather loopy or other side effects common with being on magic mushrooms.

      In Canada, there actually are studies going on as well - 3 people have obtained permits

    • I've read doses of niacin are given which can cause a flushing / tingling feeling which would be enough to make someone think they took a "live" pill.
  • I'd like to know how long it lasts. The body builds up a tolerance to that pretty quick.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cusco ( 717999 )

      To psylocibin? No, it doesn't, although an experienced user can function better under the same dose than a newbie they're still tripping the same amount.

      • So you just said that the body builds up a tolerance while trying to dismiss me.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by cusco ( 717999 )

          So reading comprehension is not your strong point. Got it. What I said was the exact opposite. I'll rephrase it for you.

          The body doesn't "build up tolerance" to psylocibin. An experienced user and a new user will be tripping the same amount, brain scans show that. The experienced user will just be able to function better because they've learned how.

          • Well I've talked to people that say the experience fades after a weekend.
          • I found this:

            You can build up a tolerance to mushrooms after using every day for as few as 3 or 4 days. This means you need to take more and more of the drug to get “high” like you did the first time. If you use mushrooms for several days in a row (continuous use), you can develop a complete tolerance.
            • I guess what you're saying is that you don't have to have the high feeling so long as there is a minute amount in the body it helps migraines.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by cusco ( 717999 )

              No idea where you found it, but it's wrong. I lived with a bunch of hippies for a long time. An experienced user can still function pretty well even when the world around him is doing strange things, it's a matter of compensation. Complete tolerance? You must be reading the DEA web site.

              • Well this matches what I was told as well as my personal experience. I was microdosing and the first day a stem was enough. Then I needed a cap and a stem, etc. Your hippie friends were on something else.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by yarbo ( 626329 )
      They studied the effects of a single administration over 2 weeks, by two weeks, the tolerance to psilocybin is back to baseline.
      • Ok so can a person take this for life and never get migraines or not?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by yarbo ( 626329 )
          Perhaps they could take mushrooms or some sort of analog on some set schedule like 2x/month and experience a reduction in migraines.

          The article did not say it completely blocked migraines for this two week period nor did it follow people for a lifetime.
  • Good news for all you migraine sufferers out there. Unless you've got a security clearance or work in other jobs that require drug tests. You get to endure intense pain because the US Govt has too much invested in it's lost "war on drugs".

    • > you've got a security clearance or work in other jobs that require drug tests. You get to endure intense pain

      The catch-22 is that if they had a psychedelic experience or two, they'd leave those 'blowing-up-poor-people' jobs.

      The System is entirely self-reenforcing by doing those random drug tests and would defeat itself by doing otherwise. Wilson was a tyrant, but no dummy. He knew that humans had used mushrooms for the previous couple hundred thousand yearsâ"the literary references stretch all t

    • Not sure where you would find workplace drug testing for psychedelics. At least in my experience working with test providers it has always been targeting THC, Alcohol, Benzodiazepines, Cocaine, Amphetamines and Opiates.

    • Unless you live in Denver, CO; Oakland, CA; Santa Cruz, CA; or the state of Oregon. The feds don't have a mushroom user task force yet.

  • the good old days, magic mushies were great
    never thought about it, but can't remember having headaches associated with tripping on mushies,
    matter of fact can't remember much about those years,
    oh, except for seeing the halo surrounding Mick and Jane while listening to Genesis
    oh, and the magic colours of our skin
    oh, and going surfing while tripping
    oh wow, flashbacks, cool, groovy and far out

  • Maybe it's because the subjects were too out of it to notice the migraine. Anesthesia probably has the same effect.

    • Unless you're a McKenna, nobody gets stoned for two weeks.

    • Not sure what dosage of Psilocybin would be required to give someone an experience comparable to anaesthesia, however the moderate dosages cited would not be sufficient to mask even moderate pain, let alone the debilitating pain associated with Migraines.

      • ...the moderate dosages cited would not be sufficient to mask even moderate pain, let alone the debilitating pain associated with Migraines.

        That is quite the statement you've got there, as we sit here discussing the very study. I'm quite certain that if the moderate doses cited would have not been sufficient to mask even moderate pain, let alone the debilitating pain associated with Migraines, we would almost assuredly not be sitting here discussing a study on the positive results of using Psilocybin to combat Migraines.

        And quite honestly, if too stoned to notice is the argument here, point me in the direction of the perfectly sober pill popp

        • The effect being reported here is a reduction in Migraine frequency after the Psilocybin has left the body, not an analgesic effect of Psilocybin whilst under its influence. Being someone who takes Triptans for relief from the acute Migraine phase, I can testify that there is no broad analgesic effect (at least from this relative to Psilocybin) - even though the Migraine pain rapidly reduces. The relief is believed to be caused by the vasoconstrictive properties of the medication. Traditional analgesics are

          • The effect being reported here is a reduction in Migraine frequency after the Psilocybin has left the body, not an analgesic effect of Psilocybin whilst under its influence. Being someone who takes Triptans for relief from the acute Migraine phase, I can testify that there is no broad analgesic effect (at least from this relative to Psilocybin) - even though the Migraine pain rapidly reduces. The relief is believed to be caused by the vasoconstrictive properties of the medication. Traditional analgesics are quite useless against Migraines. Having been given all sorts of strong opiate and anti-inflammatory analgesics in Emergency Rooms in my early Migraine days, I found them to be almost useless in reducing the pain, and if anything made it worse by making me more present in each moment, rather than in some kind of shock induced delirium.

            Thank you for the explanation, but I'm failing to understand why the medical community even keeps chasing other (ineffective?) options beyond the usual suspect of Greed wanting to sell some patented crap that hardly works. If the relief is believed to be from the fact that it's a vasoconstrictor (odd, because personally I would think relief would be provided from the exact opposite), then I don't know why we don't pursue that line of study. Vasodialation (or constriction) isn't exactly new or groundbreaki

  • Anecdotes from a migraineur (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Sampson Harris ( 7037716 ) on Monday November 23, 2020 @10:35PM (#60760012)
    Donâ(TM)t be too surprised. This is nothing completely new, just science catching up again. LSD, which is a close relative of Psilocybin (the active ingredient in Magic Mushrooms) was discovered studying ergot fungus, which also happens to be the source of most abortive Migraine medications available today. As someone who suffers Migraines, these medications are a life saver. Prior to these medications, I would have done anything to stop the pain. Anything.. Many years ago I knew a Cluster Headache sufferer who discovered weekly Psilocybin dosages was the only way he could stave off the debilitating condition. This is a well known anecdote in Psychedelic user circles, many of which were drawn to psychedelics to find an alternative treatment avenue for Cluster Headache and other conditions. Anyone who has experienced Migraine will be able to attest to the debilitating and new-pain-limit-defining properties of the acute Migraine phase. I wouldnâ(TM)t wish it on anyone. Taking psychedelics to prevent them would be inviting only a minor side effect compared to the alternative for many. Would be interesting to see modern research into the negative psychological effects of Magic Mushrooms. Weâ(TM)ve all heard the stories of âthat guy from schoolâ(TM) who lost his mind on Shrooms. Would be good to know what the the risk factors are for psychotic or schizophrenic style reactions before we start encouraging more people to use these kinds of therapies (which no doubt articles like this one will inevitably do).

  • I had migraines for 30 years until a very good acupuncturist cured me, that was 12 years ago now. Had plenty of psilocybin experiences in that time, didn't seem to have any effect.

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