Science & Health
Psilocybin Helps First Responders Reduce Stress And Curb Occupational Burnout, Study Shows
A new study of emergency first responders suggests that a single self-administered dose of psilocybin, the chief psychoactive component in psychedelic mushrooms, can help “to address psychological and stress related symptoms stemming from a challenging work environment, known to contribute to occupational burnout (OB).”
“After one therapeutic psilocybin session, several measures of OB showed an encouraging level of improvement,” says the report, published this month in the Journal of Psychedelic Studies, noting that the results “may constitute an important step towards finding alternative and innovative solutions to address high rates of psychological distress” experienced by emergency medical service workers (EMSWs).
The study, from researchers out of the University of Northampton, the nonprofit Alef Trust and the University of Greenwich, looked at five participants who each took a single dose of psilocybin mushrooms and completed interviews both before and after use.
“The results showed that, two weeks after the session, a visible improvement was noticed in several measures of pre-existent OB, that remained stable after two months,” the study says. “Additionally, most participants reported a strong subjective impact, that they perceived as fundamental for the positive outcome.”
Authors wrote that “all volunteers showed less intense levels of reactivity to specific events and occupational stressors, less intense PTSD symptomatology, lower levels of job burnout and secondary traumatic stress and higher levels of compassion satisfaction, fulfilling enough criteria to demonstrate some level of efficacy in the self-administrated treatment condition.”
They noted that not only could psilocybin aid emergency medical workers themselves but may also benefit “the organization and the quality of patient care”:
“With just one session, in a naturalistic setting, several predictors of OB showed some level of improvement and, as with military populations…these results can constitute an initial first step towards finding alternative solutions to address high rates of mental distress and illness, and all the cascade of cumulative negative effects, whether at an individual or at an organizational level, experienced by the first responder workforce, even when the stressful nature and conditions of the work remain the same, and no major changes are implemented in organizational structures.”
The study comes amid increased research and early understanding of psilocybin’s possible health benefits, especially around mental health distress.
Earlier this year, the federal government itself published a web page acknowledging the potential benefits the psychedelic substance might provide—including for treatment of alcohol use disorder, anxiety and depression. The page also highlights psilocybin research being funded by the federal government into the drug’s effects on pain, migraines, psychiatric disorders and various other conditions.
Posted on the website of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), which is part of the National Institutes of Health, the page includes basic information about what psilocybin is, where it comes from, the legal status of the drug and preliminary findings around safety and efficacy. The NCCIH page highlights three possible areas of application: alcohol use disorder, anxiety and existential distress and depression.
Yet another promising application for psychedelics could be pain management. NCCIH notes on its psilocybin page that the agency is currently funding research to study the safety and efficacy of psychedelic-assisted therapy for chronic pain, while other federally funded research is looking into “the effect of psilocybin on people with chronic low-back pain and depression in regard to their emotions and perceptions of pain.”
Separate research published this year on psilocybin found that it’s unlikely that a single experience with the drug changes people’s religious or metaphysical beliefs—though it may affect their perception of whether animals, plants or other objects experience consciousness.
Findings of another recent study suggests that the use of full-spectrum psychedelic mushroom extract has a more powerful effect than chemically synthesized psilocybin alone, which could have implications for psychedelic-assisted therapy. The findings imply that the experience of entheogenic mushrooms may involve a so-called “entourage effect” similar to what’s observed with cannabis and its many components.
A separate study published by the American Medical Association found that single-dose psilocybin use was “not associated with risk of paranoia,” while other adverse effects such as headaches are generally “tolerable and resolved within 48 hours.”
That study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, involved a meta-analysis of double-blind clinical trials where psilocybin was used to treat anxiety and depression from 1966 to last year.
AMA published another recent study that similarly contradicted commonly held beliefs about the potential risks of psychedelics use, finding the substances “may be associated with lower rates of psychotic symptoms among adolescents.”
Also, results of a clinical trial published by AMA in December “suggest efficacy and safety” of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for treatment of bipolar II disorder, a mental health condition often associated with debilitating and difficult-to-treat depressive episodes.
The association also published research last August that found people with major depression experienced “clinically significant sustained reduction” in their symptoms after just one dose of psilocybin.
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Image courtesy of Kristie Gianopulos.
