Experts warn of mental health risks following rise in magic mushroom use

MAgic mushrooms are rapidly growing in popularity, sparking a ‘psychedelic renaissance’ as people become more interested in their mental health benefits. But experts have warned that its recreational use risks causing more harm than good.

Trials exploring psilocybin as a breakthrough treatment for mental health problems have led to a proliferation of psychedelic companies and retreats in countries where they are legal, as more and more people buy the drug, which is Class A in Britain, on the hidden market .

The newest Bureau of National Statistics facts shows that psilocybin was the only illegal drug to grow in popularity in 2024, increasing by 37.5% to 1.1% of 16 to 59 year olds, representing approximately 300,000 people and making the drug almost as popular as ecstasy.

Experts said that while clinical trials showed promising results, there is increasing evidence to suggest that people who use psilocybin outside these settings may experience harm including anxiety, trauma, insomnia, persistent visual distortion, known as Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder (HPPD). ), and feelings of depersonalization.

Regular general practitioners, psychiatrists and therapists lack the knowledge to treat this and sometimes misdiagnose patients with psychosis or mania, the experts said.

Jules Evans, the director of the academic research project Challenging Psychedelic Experience, which aims to improve monitoring of side effects, has interviewed people “in terrible crises who say they were unaware that they were suffering for days, weeks, months or years could subsequently endure serious difficulties. ”, including some who were sectioned after discussing mythical experiences with a psychiatrist.

“You have people who are re-traumatized by very challenging psychedelic experiences, or who become traumatized by going on really bad trips in suboptimal conditions,” he said.

The distress can be exacerbated by the psychedelic integration coaches to whom people turn for support, he said. “They have a certain dogmatic worldview where psychedelics are all benevolent intelligences that always know what’s good for you – listen to the mushrooms, listen to mama ayahuasca.”

Although it is difficult to determine the prevalence of people experiencing post-psychedelic damage, recent research found that 8.9% of respondents who had used psychedelics regularly during their lifetime reported impairments lasting more than one day.

Ed Prideaux, who has researched adverse effects after experiencing HPPD, said that years later he still sees a “strange glare,” melting wallpaper and other optical illusions. He said that “basically everyone” in the psychedelic community has had at least one similar experience.

While myths circulated about psychedelics when they were last popular in the mid-20th century, Prideaux thinks cases such as American pilot Joseph Everson, who crashed a plane two days after taking magic mushrooms, suggest that flashbacks require more research .

There are four clinics in Europe that offer specialist care. The most established is Ambulanz psychedelic Substanzen, a psychedelic outpatient clinic at Charité, a university hospital in Berlin, which offers online consultations for international clients.

Tomislav Majić, a psychiatrist, founded the clinic in 2018 after noticing that people were having bad experiences with doctors who were unfamiliar with the “specific effects, risks and complications of psychedelics.” Most patients use them as “self-medication for mental health problems” and require psychological support, although some require psychiatric help, he said.

“There has been an increase in problems associated with psilocybin and other classic psychedelics, most likely due to the growing popularity and often overenthusiastic portrayal of these substances in the media and, in some cases, in scientific discourse. Statistically, in some countries there has been an increase in psychedelic-related presentations to emergency departments,” he said.

The Psychedelic Experience Clinic recently became Britain’s first specialist service. Its founder, Timmy Davis, director of psychedelics policy at the Center for Evidence Based Drug Policy, noticed a lack of “post-trial care” while working on clinical trials, and that recreational users were looking for non-stigmatizing support.

“Some people see psychedelics as a way to deal with mental health issues that they don’t really understand. They read things like The Body Keeps the Score and learn about trauma and ultimately think that the cause of my suffering is a traumatic experience from my childhood. “It’s a pretty naive idea of ​​mental health, and they seek out retreats in Costa Rica or Jamaica where they meet counselors with the same naive views,” he said.

David Erritzoe, associate professor of psychedelic research at Imperial College London, said an “Achilles heel” of psychedelics is that experiences can be dreamlike and feel extremely real, partly because the drugs increase suggestibility. People may believe that they have uncovered a ‘hidden memory’ and wrongly conclude that they must use it to ‘understand myself and my relationships and difficulties’.

“We need more strategies to inform people about these phenomena and provide support when they happen,” he said, adding that the fact that recreational use is now “extremely popular” suggests that health professionals need guidance.

Psilocybin is relatively safe from a physical perspective, with headaches and nausea being the most common side effects, but he added: “There can be a lot of difficult psychological material, it can be relational, autobiographical, dream-like in symbolic forms, elements deep of the psyche – that can be challenging, and sometimes even anxiety-provoking or fear-inducing.”

The top risk factors include being young, scoring high on neuroticism, not being prepared enough and being in a space that feels unsafe, he said.

Erritzoe said there is “hype that doesn’t help” around psilocybin, including microdosing, for which there is no good evidence other than a placebo effect. But he is “very optimistic” about its therapeutic potential, with a low risk of adverse effects in clinical trials, because here they screen participants and take great care with setting and dosing, while researchers “continually try to improve” aftercare.

More data is needed before psilocybin can be approved for medical use, but if regulators are satisfied with its safety and efficacy, Erritzoe suggested the ketamine could be added as a psychedelic treatment in Britain within three years.