Psychedelic Drug Research Held Back By UK Rules and Attitudes, Say Scientists

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: Draconian licensing rules and a lack of public funding are holding back the emerging field of psychedelic medicine in the UK, leading scientists have warned after the release of groundbreaking results on the use of psilocybin to treat depression. The latest clinical trial found that a single dose of the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, combined with psychotherapy, helped alleviate depression in nearly a third of patients with severe depression. The finding follows other promising results suggesting that psychedelic drugs could be used in treating conditions including anxiety, PTSD, addiction and anorexia.

However, Prof David Nutt, the former government drug adviser and director of the neuropsychopharmacology research unit at Imperial College London, said that unless regulations and attitudes changed, potential treatments would remain 'in limbo' at an experimental stage and available only to those who could pay for them in private clinics. 'Patients are being denied access because of the regulations,' he said. 'The research is really hampered by the legal status.'

Despite what some are hailing as a 'psychedelic renaissance,' Nutt said there had been minimal public funding for research in this area, besides a grant he received from the Medical Research Council to study psilocybin and funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research for a trial published last week. 'I don't think there's any other funding. It's all philanthropists and private sector funding,' he said. 'It reflects the fact that we still see illegal drugs as drugs to be banned.' He said basic scientific research was vital for the development of new potential treatments. 'This isn't just some public groundswell of hippy resurrection,' he said. 'The science has driven the clinical work.'

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