For many years Amanda Feilding worked with the aim of setting up a research programme in the UK into the effects of psychedelic drugs on the brain, in order to find out what is their neurophysiological action and how they may be used as potential treatment options. She and Prof. David Nutt had collaborated since 2002 and in 2009 they set up the Beckley Foundation / Imperial College Psychedelic Research Programme. The first four studies, working with Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris, as principal investigator, investigated the effects of psilocybin on the human brain using the latest brain imaging technology – fMRI, ASL and BOLD, and Magnetoencephalography (MEG) . The studies are bearing remarkable results on the effects of psilocybin in brain activity and blood flow and how psilocybin may provide a novel and effective treatment for depression and cluster headaches, and aid in the recall of repressed memories. Prof. David Nutt is Head of Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London, and Chair of the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs.
The Beckley Foundation is also collaborating with Professor Roland Griffiths and his wonderful team at Johns Hopkins University with the use of psilocybin-facilitated psychotherapy as a treatment for resistant addiction- in this case addiction to nicotine. This is the first pilot study in recent times to investigate the use of psychedelics as an aid to treating addiction. The initial results have been very successful.
More to follow…
Published in the British Journal of Psychiatry Implications for psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study with psilocybin, February 2012 Background Psilocybin is a classic psychedelic drug that has a history of use in psychotherapy. One of the rationales for its use was that it aids emotional insight by lowering psychological defences. Aims To [...]
In this popular science article published in io9, Robert T. Gonzales ties up findings from this week’s Beckley Foundation-Imperial College Psilocybin paper in the PNAS with Aldous Huxley’s ‘reducing valve’ hypothesis, initially presented in his 1954 book The Doors of Perception (http://mescaline.com/huxley.htm); also, to more recent theorising by Karl Friston of University College London (http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/~karl/), [...]
Press Release 25th January 2012 The Beckley Foundation-Imperial College Psychedelic Research Programme Surprising findings of Research: Potential therapeutic applications of psychedelic drugs fMRI brain scans show that psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, lowers the activity of specific brain regions. The finding contradicts the popular belief that psychedelic drugs increase brain activity, and has [...]
USA Today 29.9.2011 – Coverage of a Beckley Foundation project In new research that will almost certainly create controversy, scientists working with the hallucinogen psilocybin — the active ingredient found in “magic mushrooms” — have found that a single dose of the drug prompted an enduring but positive personality change in almost 60 percent of [...]
In a recent double-blind tested, placebo controlled, longitudinal study, scientists from the “Brain, Performance and Nutrition Center” at the University of Northumbria have demonstrated how caffeine interacts with the brain. In non-habitual users, a single dietary dose of caffeine causes significant reduction of blood flow to the pre-frontal cortex. This study tested users with infrared spectroscopy to [...]
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This is a brilliant new study from the team at Johns Hopkins University. The Beckley Foundation is currently collaborating on another study with the team from Johns Hopkins, led by Professor Roland Griffiths, researching the effects of psilocybin as an aid to psychotherapy for treating nicotine addiction. The results so far have been extremely promising. [...]
Drug taboos may block a potential treatment for cluster headaches, one of the most painful conditions known. “I had a gun sitting on top of the computer monitor,” says Bill McConnell. “And I typed ‘suicide’ plus ‘headache’ into the search bar to leave an explanation for what I was about to do.” McConnell, who is [...]
Part of the Beckley Foundation/Imperial College Psychedelic Research Program In the worlds first study with psilocybin and fMRI the Beckley Foundation’s director Amanda Feilding, working with Professor David Nutt and Dr Carhart Harris, have investigated the effects of psilocybin on blood flow in the brain using fMRI to identify the functional brain correlates of the [...]
The Brain: A Secret History, is a new three part documentary series on BBC4, which illustrates the history of attempts to understand and manipulate the brain. The documentary visits a Beckley Foundation study at Imperial College London in collaboration with Professor David Nutt (Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology , and Chair of the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs), [...]
Last summer, while filming for my new BBC4 series, The Brain – A Secret History, I took part in the UK’s first scientific trial of psilocybin – the active component of magic mushrooms. It was one of the strangest experiences of my life. Psilocybin is a hallucinogenic drug, so I was extremely apprehensive. It also [...]
