distribute with a cancer diagnosis can cause severe psychological distress , although enquiry suggest thatpsilocybin , the active compound in sorcerous mushroom , may help sufferer to overtake many of the existential challenge that accompany the sickness . Appearing in theJournal of Psychopharmacology , a newfangled study indicate that a undivided discussion with the drug can sire unfathomed betterment in malignant neoplastic disease patient role ’ calibre of lifespan for up to 4.5 eld .
The study build uponresearch published in 2016 , when psilocybin intervention was provided to 29 people suffer from life - imperil genus Cancer , all of whom had been diagnosed with depression or anxiety as a event of their sickness . Half a yr later , some 60 to 80 percentage of participants display asignificant reduction in symptomsrelated to their economic crisis or anxiety .
Of the 16 surviving participant from that cogitation , 15 correspond to take part in the newfangled follow - up study , which found that these “ step-down in anxiety , depression , hopelessness , demoralisation , and dying anxiety were sustained ” 4.5 year on from the initial psilocin treatment . As before , 60 to 80 percent of participants still met the criteria for “ clinically significant antidepressant or anxiolytic response , ” with 71 to 100 percent attributing these improvements to their psilocin experience .
In their write - up , the bailiwick source admit quotes taken from interviews with the participants , which give an insight into some of the existential processes underlying this reduction in symptom .
One participant explain that “ I experience such overwhelming love in my psilocybin experience , that it gave me fresh confidence … I think the extreme astuteness of sexual love I felt changed the way I relate to others . [ It ] gave me a look that I have a right wing to be here and to enjoy lifetime . ”
Another described how “ the psilocybin experience changed my thinking about myself in the world . I see myself in a less special way . I am more open to life . It has taken me out from under a big loading of feeling and past issues in my lifetime that I was carrying around . ”
The subject field source stress that these insights were brought about not by psilocybin alone , but by combining the subject matter with mental hygiene . They speculate that this experience may “ lead one to recrudesce enduring addition in psychological tractableness . ”
This , they say , could enable patients to “ establish a fresh inner framework from which they could flexibly avail themselves of resources internally and in their environment to cope with living stressor , particularly stressors associated with their Crab diagnosing . ”
