E! Science News has reported on April 6, 2013, Magic mushrooms' psychedelic ingredient could help treat people with severe depression. Professor David Nutt of Imperial College London says drugs derived from magic mushrooms could help treat people with severe depression. Scientists have stated they believe the chemical psilocybin, which is the psychedelic ingredient in magic mushrooms, can turn down parts of the brain that are overactive in severely depressive patients. Apparently the drug stops patients from dwelling on themselves and their own perceived inadequacies.
Robin McKie has reported for The Guardian, Magic mushrooms' psychedelic ingredient could help treat people with severe depression. Although scientists believe drugs derived from magic mushrooms could help treat people with severe depression, there have been problems carrying out clinical trials of psilocybin on patients. Where an interest in psilocybin as a possible treatment for depression has been initially raised, in Great Britain,
scientists efforts to check this out further have been blocked by red tape relating to Britain's strict drugs laws.
Professor David Nutt, a professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London, has stated because magic mushrooms are rated as a class-A drug, their active chemical ingredient cannot be manufactured unless a special license is granted. Nutt has said, "We haven't started the study because finding companies that could manufacture the drug and who are prepared to go through the regulatory hoops to get the license is proving very difficult. The whole field is so bedevilled by primitive old-fashioned attitudes. Even if you have a good idea, you may never get it into the clinic, it seems."
