Magic mushrooms could, in the future, be used to improve the quality of life for people in a vegetative state.
Scientists believe psilocybin, the active ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms, may be able to help restore brain activity in comatose patients, according to Vice News.
More research is needed, however. The idea was broached in a recently released scientific paper.
“The simple way of framing it is that disorders of consciousness have low complexity, and these drugs seem to increase complexity,” Gregory Scott, a neurologist at Imperial College London, told Vice News. “Let’s see what these drugs do in disorders of consciousness. Can they increase complexity and accordingly increase consciousness levels?”
Psilocybin is already known to increase the activity of neurons in certain serotonin receptors.
Scott and his colleagues suggest testing their theory by first monitoring the effects of psilocybin on healthy patients who are either sedated or sleeping. If the results appear promising, only then would they move on to working with patients who are in a vegetative state.
It’s unknown when, or if, trials will begin. One obstacle is that comatose patients cannot give consent to researchers, Vice News notes. That raises serious ethical questions.
“If people say you can’t ethically do anything, that we should leave them alone — that produces a neglected group who no one’s really thinking about how we can help,” Scott said. “When you look at it from that point of view, it’s a fairly dreadful situation, just in a different way.”
Magic mushrooms could help restore brain activity in comatose patients – Palm Beach Post
