CAN ILLEGAL DRUGS HELP DEPRESSION?

Ketamine for depression and LSD for improving brain power; meet the
lady who funds the science that no-one else will do, Amanda Feilding
is on a mission to unlock the secrets of the mind

Many people will enjoy some yoga or meditation this weekend. Both
practices have proven health benefits, but for some people knowing
that it works is never enough. They have to know why it works - what
is really happening in the brain - and they will stop at nothing to
find out, even if it means initiating and funding the research themselves.

Amanda Feilding is one of those people. Last week she started an
investigation that will examine the changes in blood flow during
meditation, and how this prompts states of relaxation.

But this is just one of Feilding's curiosities. Also known as Lady
Neidpath, Feilding is not a scientist, but spends a six-figure sum of
her own money each year to explore the inner workings of our mind:
how we think; where creativity comes from; and how we can harness
this knowledge. Through her charitable trust, the Beckley Foundation,
she instigated the first scientific trial in 35 years to use LSD on
human subjects. Based in Beckley Park, the Oxfordshire estate where
Feilding has spent all her life, the foundation's remit is to push
for drug policy reform and fund research that will delve into the
altered states of consciousness induced by meditation, deep breathing
and powerful psychoactive drugs such as LSD. Even trepanning, the
ancient practice of drilling a hole in the skull, is a line of modern
inquiry as a treatment for Alzheimer's. It is research that - in the
UK at least - no one else appears willing to back.

"We are on the verge of making real breakthroughs," she says.

Why would an English Lady want to spend her money on high-risk
projects with poor-to-zero financial returns? Feilding's fascination
with consciousness started at an early age. Interested in
spirituality through her Roman Catholic upbringing, she was sent aged
16 to India to visit her godfather, a Buddhist monk. She went on to
study mysticism and comparative religion at Oxford University and
dabbled with drugs throughout the Sixties. But her interest in the
medical applications of such substances sprung from a friendship with
Albert Hofmann, the Swiss scientist who invented LSD, and who pushed
for the medical benefits of the drug to be investigated. Hofmann died
this year aged 102, shortly before the foundation published his last
book, Hofmann's Elixir: LSD and the New Eleusis, a collection of his
essays and lectures.

Feilding realised that there was no research at UK universities into
hallucinogens, so she started her own. "The best way to go was to set
up a foundation, get an impressive board of top scientists to see if
we can get some research going," she says. "We are very
tunnel-visioned in our view of consciousness. We tend to direct our
vision to technical advances, like things that have got us to the
Moon," she says. It would be easy to label her as merely a
well-heeled old hippy, but for some years she has been networking
with scientists, ministers, drug czars, and other academic
intelligentsia. Her board of advisers includes top international
names, such as Colin Blakemore, former head of the UK Medical
Research Council, and Mike Trace, her co-director of the Beckley
Policy Programme, who worked at the United Nations Office on Drugs
and Crime until 2003.

She rates one of her most rewarding achievements as kickstarting a
paper that reassessed the relative harms of legal drugs alongside
prohibited substances. The paper, published in The Lancet, grew out
of Beckley Foundation seminars in 2003 and 2004. It caused a stir: of
the 20 drugs, alcohol was the fifth most dangerous, ketamin sixth,
and MDMA (Ecstasy) the third least dangerous. Heroin and cocaine were
ranked first and second most dangerous.

Research Is Beginning to Bear Fruit

Although active for more than five years, the Beckley Foundation is
only now showing signs of success. Last year it scored a serious hit:
the first permission to use LSD with human subjects in a scientific
context in 35 years. The study - at a secret institution in the US -
is investigating the effects of LSD on the brain chemistry
underpinning consciousness and how it might modulate the creative
process. "The study of consciousness is so central to our happiness,
survival and creativity, it's a mistake not to explore scientifically
the potential benefits this compound might yield," says Feilding.

Another Beckley-funded study to monitor blood flow in the brain using
functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in people under the
influence of LSD is also poised to begin in Europe. Micro-doses of
LSD might increase blood flow in some parts of the brain, as has been
noted in its chemical cousin psilocybin (the active ingredient in
magic mushrooms).

Tracking the changes as participants undergo cognitive tests could
reveal how the brain completes complex tasks, hopefully providing
insights into how we can boost brain power.

"To deny science a valuable tool like psychedelics is just myopic.
It's ignoring a good possibility to learn more about the brain, our
master tool, and how these substances can be used as an aid in psychotherapy."

Cannabis will also come under the microscope. Dave Nutt, a
neuropharmacologist at the University of Bristol, will use
brain-imaging techniques to measure the biological basis of the
marijuana "high". No one understands why some users find cannabis
appealing, and in some it provokes the opposite reaction: anxiety.
Because cannabis has potential as a medicine for conditions such as
multiple sclerosis, but is not well tolerated by many people,
clinicians want to find out why such reactions occur. The brain
scanner experiments may reveal whether different parts of the brain
are activated.

Another study at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London,
will compare the effects of two of the principal components of
cannabis, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). The ratio
between the two chemicals in the cannabis plant is thought to affect
whether users experience a pleasurable high or the cosmic
heebie-jeebies. This is a first in the UK - previous research has
been limited only to the direct medical applications.

"We Need to Overcome Taboos"

Research using psychedelic drugs has a chequered history around the
world. Many studies conducted in the Fifties and Sixties that
reported benefits were not properly controlled and lacked adequate
follow-ups. Feilding knows this, but points out that methodology and
technology have improved, particularly in areas such as brain-imaging
techniques.

"In a scientific age we need to give scientific explanations to
overcome taboos," she says. She will also be working with University
College London on a study into the antidepressant effect of ketamine,
a medical anaesthetic growing in popularity at clubs and parties.

Scientific philanthropy is not common in the UK. But Robin Murray
from the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, says that
private funding is certainly welcome for studies that governments
shun. And although Professor Murray doubts that hallucinogens will
have direct therapeutic benefits, he says that understanding their
neurochemical effects will help us better to understand mental
illness. "Derivatives and drugs based on changing their molecules may
well have benefits."

And in one of the most controversial studies, Feilding is
collaborating with a Russian neurophysiologist, Yuri Moskalenko, in
studies into cerebral circulation and age-related decline in
cognition. Incredibly, measures to counteract progressive senility
could include trepanation: drilling a small hole into the skull, an
operation that has been performed for perhaps thousands of years. The
theory goes that releasing the pressure in the cranium by trepanation
can increase cerebral circulation and prevent age-related cognitive decline.

Harriet Millward, the deputy chief executive of the Alzheimer's
Research Trust, says there is no conclusive medical evidence that
trepanning improves brain function. However, the procedure has been
understudied so far and until further research has been undertaken
the possibility of beneficial effects remains open.

Feilding stresses that her work is not designed to promote drug use;
she is aware of the destructive effect they can have on people's
lives. She is interested simply in investigating the medical benefits
of such substances, in a controlled and safe environment.

"What motivates me is that I feel it's an area where one can
contribute a real benefit to humanity," she says.

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HISTORY OF DRUGS

3,000BC Cannabis is cultivated in China and Asia. Evidence of
cannabis smoking in Eastern Europe

1800s Laudanum, a cordial containing opium, becomes hugely popular.
Coleridge and Keats are fans

1874 A British scientist isolates heroin from morphine

1880 Doctors start to use cocaine as an anaesthetic in surgery

1903 Cocaine is substituted with caffeine in Coca-Cola

1912 MDMA, later known as Ecstasy, is synthesised by pharmaceutical
company Merck

1916 Harrods withdraws gift packs for soldiers at the front that
contain cocaine and morphine

1955 UK bans heroin import, export and manufacture

1952 The world's first therapeutic LSD clinic opened in Worcestershire

21st century Scientists study drugs such as marijuana and LSD as
potential treatments for a range of ailments