Magic mushrooms: UAB studying benefits for addiction and pain
Dr. Peter Hendricks, a researcher at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, found that patients given psilocybin saw significant and lasting reductions in cocaine use compared to patients given a placebo. He plans to continue studying psilocybin’s effect on addiction, as well as on chronic pain conditions like fibromyalgia. Hendricks explains that psilocybin disrupts repetitive thought patterns in the default mode network of the brain, the structures that engage in unfocused activities. “Suddenly your horizons are broadened, and broadened tremendously, and you’re thinking about something other than obtaining or using that drug (or worrying about your pain)”.