MMagic mushrooms are rapidly growing in popularity, leading to a “psychedelic renaissance” as people become more interested in their mental health benefits. But experts have warned that using it for recreational purposes may cause more harm than good.
Trials exploring psilocybin as a pioneering treatment for mental health conditions have led to a proliferation of psychedelic companies and withdrawals in countries where it is legal, while more people are buying the drug, which is Class A in the UK, on the hidden market.
Latest Office for National Statistics Data It shows that psilocybin was the only illegal drug to increase in popularity in 2024, increasing in popularity by 37.5% to 1.1% among people aged 16 to 59, representing about 300,000 people, making the drug almost as popular as… Ecstasy.
While clinical trials have shown promising results, emerging evidence suggests that people who take psilocybin outside of these environments can experience harm, including anxiety, trauma, insomnia, persistent visual distortion known as hallucinatory persistent perceptual disorder (HPPD), and feelings of depersonalization, experts said.
Experts added that general practitioners, psychiatrists and therapists lack the knowledge necessary to treat this issue, and sometimes misdiagnose patients with psychosis or mania.
Jules Evans, director of the academic research project Challenging Psychedelic Experience, which aims to improve monitoring of negative events, has interviewed people “who experience terrible crises who say they have no awareness that they can endure extreme hardship for days, weeks, months or years afterwards.” Among them were some who were fired after discussing legendary experiences with a psychiatrist.
“There are people who have been re-traumatized by very difficult psychedelic experiences or traumatized by very bad trips in suboptimal conditions,” he said.
Distress can be exacerbated by psychedelic integration coaches from whom people seek support, he said. “They have a certain worldview where psychedelics all know a benevolent intelligence that always knows what’s good for you — listen to the mushrooms, listen to your ayahuasca mama.”
Although it is difficult to determine the prevalence of people experiencing post-drug effects, Recent research It found that 8.9% of participants who used the drug regularly throughout their lives reported impairments that lasted longer than one day.
Ed Prideaux, who researched the harmful effects after being exposed to HPPD, said that years later, he still sees “weird sparkles,” melting wallpaper and other optical illusions. “Basically everyone” in the psychedelic community has had at least one similar experience, he said.
While myths circulated about the drug when it was last popular in the mid-20th century, Prideaux believes cases such as American pilot Joseph Everson, who crashed a plane two days after ingesting magic mushrooms, indicate that flashbacks need further research.
There are four clinics in Europe that provide specialist assistance. The most famous is Ambulanz psychedelische Substanzen, a Outpatient drug clinic At the Charité University Hospital in Berlin, which offers online consultations to international clients.
Tomislav Majić, a psychiatrist, set up the clinic in 2018 after noticing that people were having bad experiences with doctors who were unaware of the “specific effects, risks and complications of drugs.” He added that most patients use it as “self-treatment for mental health problems” and need psychological support, although some of them need psychological help.
“There has been an increase in problems related to psilocybin and other classic psychedelics, likely due to the growing popularity and often excessive portrayal of these substances in the media and, in some cases, in scientific discourse,” he said. “Statistically, there has been an increase in Drug-related presentations in emergency departments in some countries.
The Psychedelic Experience Clinic has recently become the UK’s first specialist service. Its founder, Timmy Davis, director of drug policy at the Center for Evidence-Based Drug Policy, noticed while working on clinical trials a lack of “post-trial care provision,” and that recreational users were looking for non-stigmatizing support.
“Some people see psychedelics as a way to deal with mental health conditions they don’t really understand. They read things like The Body Keeps the Score and learn about trauma and end up thinking that the root of my suffering is a traumatic childhood experience. It’s a completely naive idea about health mentality, and they search for retreats in Costa Rica or Jamaica, where they meet facilitators with the same naive notions.
David Erizzo, associate professor of psychedelic research at Imperial College London, said psychedelics’ “weak point” is that experiences can be dream-like and feel very real, partly because drugs increase suggestibility. People may believe they have uncovered a “hidden memory,” and mistakenly conclude that they must use it to “understand myself, my relationships, and my difficulties.”
“We need more strategies to educate people about these phenomena and provide support when they happen,” he said, adding that the fact that recreational use is now “so common” suggests that health care workers should get guidance.
Psilocybin is considered relatively safe from a physical standpoint, with headaches and nausea being the most common side effects, but he added: “There can be a lot of difficult psychological material, it can be relational, autobiographical, dream-like in symbolic forms, or visceral elements.” Psychologically – this can be challenging, and sometimes cause anxiety or fear.
He said the main risk factors include being young, scoring high on neuroticism, being unprepared, and being in an unsafe place.
There is “unhelpful hype” around psilocybin, including small doses, for which there is little good evidence other than a placebo effect, Erizzo said. But he is “very optimistic” about its therapeutic potential, with the risk of adverse effects being lower in clinical trials because here they screen participants and pay a lot of attention to preparation and dosage, while researchers are “constantly trying to improve” aftercare.
More data is needed before psilocybin can be licensed for medical use, although if regulators are satisfied with its safety and effectiveness, Erizzo has suggested it could join ketamine as a psychedelic treatment in the UK within three years.
