A new study published today says that Psilocybin, also known as Magic Mushroom, reduces the risk of opioid addiction by 30%.

According to a nationally representative survey of US people published in Scientific Reports, adults who have used psilocybin — a psychedelic substance produced by some types of mushrooms – are 30 percent less likely to have opioid use disorder.

Using survey data obtained between 2015 and 2019, Grant Jones and colleagues looked into the prevalence of opioid use disorder and psychedelic usage among 214,505 persons.

In the past year, participants were asked if they had abused or became dependent on heroin or prescription pain medicines, as well as if they had ever used the hallucinogenic drugs psilocybin, peyote, mescaline, or LSD.

Over the course of the past year, 2,183 of the study’s participants (or 1.0 percent) met the criteria for opioid use disorder. 22,276 people (10.4 percent) said they’d used psilocybin, while 10,284 people (46 percent) said they’d tried heroin or prescription pain medicines recreationally at least once in their lifetimes.

When comparing people who had used psilocybin to those who had never used it, the researchers discovered that those who had used it were 30 percent less likely to develop opioid use disorder.

When compared to individuals who had never used it, those who had used psilocybin were 17 percent to 34 percent less likely to have had seven of the 11 symptoms of opiate dependency and addiction in the previous year.

This indicates that psilocybin use may protect against a variety of opioid use disorder symptoms. The researchers found no significant links between the usage of peyote, mescaline, or LSD and the chance of developing an opioid use problem.

The experts theorize that psilocybin protects against opioid use disorder by changing the transmission of serotonin and dopamine, two neurotransmitters linked to addiction in earlier research.

Furthermore, they speculate that the mystical or spiritual experiences induced by psilocybin may reduce the risk of users acquiring opioid use disorder, as past research has linked spiritual experiences and beliefs to beneficial substance addiction recovery results.

They emphasize that further research is needed, including long-term observational studies and clinical trials, to study the link between psilocybin and opioid usage.

Source: 10.1038/s41598-022-08085-4

Image Credit: Getty

You were reading: Psilocybin: Experts claim Magic mushroom lowers risk of opioid addiction