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Research on the use of psychedelic drugs as potential treatment for psychiatric disorders has gained momentum in the U.S. in recent years, with compounds like psilocybin — the active ingredient in “magic mushrooms” — shifting from the fringes of medicine toward the mainstream.  

Limited studies out of institutions like Johns Hopkins University and others over the last decade have shown promise in using psilocybin in tandem with talk therapy to help longtime smokers quit smoking, ease anxiety in people with terminal cancer and reduce symptoms of major depression.  

Earlier this year, a follow-up study by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers found two doses of the hallucinogenic compound coupled with psychotherapy resulted in large decreases in major depressive disorder symptoms for most of the study’s participants.  

In a testament to how powerful the mystical experience associated with the drug can be, Roland Griffiths, the professor in the Neuropsychopharmacology of Consciousness at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who received approval in 2000 to carry out the first experiments on psilocybin since the 1960s, found in a survey of early study participants that more than half regarded it as one of the most meaningful experiences of their life.   

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