A patient wearing a mask while receiving psilocybin therapy. Compass Pathways/Special to The Herald
JOE FRIES
Donna Benson realized that research into psychedelic drugs for therapeutic use had finally hit the mainstream when the subject became the talk of a normally staid conference of psychiatrists last year in Vancouver.
“The guys that were presenting their papers, they were wearing suits. They were the suits. It wasn’t just some folks from the woods on Vancouver Island,” said Benson in an interview this week, recalling her visit to the October 2023 annual meeting of the Canadian Psychiatry Associations.
Benson, who’s the CEO of Medical Arts Health Research Group, began reviewing other research about the therapeutic use of drugs like psilocybin, ketamine and MDMA – which can be abused by recreational users – for conditions ranging from addictions and depression to post-traumatic stress disorder and end-of-life care.
“I read some of the work about PTSD and it’s a miracle, people’s lives are reclaimed,” she said.
All of that convinced Benson to put her company to work for a clinical trial being operated by a company called Compass Pathways, which is evaluating the use of psilocybin – the psychedelic ingredient in magic mushrooms – to help patients with treatment-resistant depression.
Approximately 20 people from the Okanagan are required for the study, which is also running in Kamloops and Vancouver.
Some patients will get placebos on some visits, but everyone who enrolls will still get the real thing in various doses, all of which will be accompanied by trained therapists.
“The thing is, this is all with the therapy,” said Benson.
“It’s not about taking this stuff in the wild.”
Benson said psilocybin affects serotonin levels in the brain, which in turn dials down something called the “default mode network” that functions as a sort of inner critic.
“So what it does is it kind of disables the critic for a bit so you don’t have all those defence systems,” explained Benson, which allows therapists to help patients through their difficulties and begin to retrain their brains.
Still, she’s the first to acknowledge the research isn’t strong enough yet for wide-scale deployment of psychedelics, which is why she’s rolling up her sleeves to help.
She’s also trying to change doctors’ minds about the potential benefits of the drugs.
“The dilemma is the medical community is extremely conservative,” said Benson, who’s particularly interested in finding treatment regimes to benefit the mental health of people who act as caregivers to loved ones and developing alternatives to regular anti-depressants.
To be eligible for the study, patients must be at least 18 years of age and have a diagnosis of major depression that hasn’t responded to anti-depressants. There is no cost to participate and those accepted into the study will receive a small stipend and travel money.
For more information, call 1-888-490-4320 or visit www.healthresearch.ca/psilocybin/.
