A Maryland father says an experimental treatment using the hallucinogenic chemical found in magic mushrooms helped him manage his debilitating depression as he battled cancer.
Evan Craig said he was willing to try anything to climb out of the deep depression he was in after he was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer.
Craig participated in a clinical trial at the Shady Grove Adventist Aquilino Cancer Center in Rockville in which doctors gave him psilocybin, the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms.
"I hadn't considered doing any sort of psychedelic beforehand, but it looked promising and I figured I'd give it a shot," Craig said. "I mean, what do I have to lose? At the time, I thought I was going to die, so why not?"
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The 32-year-old salesman took psilocybin under the watchful eye of a therapist. Cameras also recorded the sessions.
"It was kind of like watching a movie. Your body is there, but you're just kind of sitting back and watching," Craig said.
He said over six hours, vivid scenes played out in his mind.
"There were very scary moments and there were also very beautiful moments," Craig said. "At one point, I was deep in the ocean, traveling with whales. I washed up as trash on a beach, which was kind of unsettling, but it's just all part of the journey."
He said the treatment helped him deal with the emotional turmoil that followed his cancer diagnosis.
Doctors say the experiment had remarkable results, with more than 80% of patients reporting their depression improved.
"The real healing comes the deeper you're able to go into your experience," Dr. Paul Thambi said. "What we think is that your psyche, your spirit maybe, shows you what you need to see, and it allows you to sort of examine that, see it maybe from a different perspective than you were looking at it before. And that's where the healing begins."
More research is needed, but Thambi and Dr. Manish Agrawal, both oncologists, believe psychedelics have the potential to revolutionize mental health care.
"It's easy to get in the hype, but there's also a cautionary tale of taking them without the proper support could lead to problems," Agrawal said.
Craig says psilocybin, along with group therapy sessions before and after treatment, helped him face the fears he had packed away in his mind.
"I've had sadness in my life since the study, but nothing compared to before the study itself," he said.
The effects of a single dose of psilocybin lasted eight months.
As for his cancer, he is now in remission.
"They told me after the surgery that I had … that I should start planning for how my kids are going to grow up because they didn't think I was going to make it. So I just feel lucky to be here," Craig said.
About 30 people took part in the psilocybin clinical trial. They meet virtually each month along with a therapist, to talk about the experience and how they’re healing.
