MUSHROOMS TAKE A TRIP BACK TO THE LAB

Banned Hallucinogens May Have Medical Benefits, but Results Are Unpredictable.

Resting on a hospital bed beneath a tie-dyed wall hanging, Pamela
Sakuda felt a tingling sensation. Then bright colors started
shimmering in her head.

She had been depressed since being diagnosed with colon cancer two
years earlier, but as the experimental drug took hold, she felt the
sadness sweep away from her, leaving in its wake an overpowering
sense of connection to loved ones, followed by an inner calm.

"It was like an epiphany," said Sakuda, 59, recalling the 2005 drug treatment.

Sakuda, a Long Beach software developer, was under the influence of
the hallucinogen psilocybin, which she took during a UCLA study
exploring the therapeutic effects of the active compound in "magic"
mushrooms. Although illegal for general use, the drug has been
approved for medical experiments such as this one.

Scientists suspect the hallucinogen, whose use dates back to ancient
Mexico, may have properties that could improve treatments for some
psychological conditions and forms of physical pain.

Long dismissed as medically useless, the banned mushrooms -- a staple
of the psychedelic 1960s -- are taking a long, strange trip back to the lab.

The medical journal Neurology in June reported on more than 20 cases
in which mushroom ingestion prevented or stopped cluster headaches, a
rare neurological disorder, more reliably than prescription pharmaceuticals.

In July, researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore
reported that mushrooms could instill a sense of spirituality and
connection, a finding that scientists said could lead to treatments
for patients suffering from mental anguish or addiction.

The research has been driven in part by the success of mood-altering
pharmaceuticals, such as the antidepressant Prozac, which work on the
same brain chemicals and pathways.

Nothing scientists have learned so far indicates that recreational
use of mushrooms is safe. The psychological effects remain
unpredictable. Deaths have been linked to mushroom intoxication. A
Ventura County teen was killed by a car two years ago as she wandered
naked across the 101 Freeway after eating mushrooms.

Even under the tightly controlled conditions of a clinical trial,
some patients have had terrifying experiences marked by anxiety and
paranoia; two people in the Johns Hopkins study likened the
experience to being in a war.

The drug "takes your thoughts through a prism and turns them around,"
Sakuda said.

Her drug trip left her with a sense of peace -- a serenity she hadn't
felt since her diagnosis.

"It was like rebooting a computer," she said.

Drugs' Medical History

Forty years ago, the study of hallucinogens in therapy was a
mainstream endeavor. The Swiss drug company Sandoz provided
pharmaceutical-grade tablets of psilocybin and various researchers
explored its use as a treatment for depression and other
psychological problems.

Used for centuries during spiritual ceremonies by the Mazatec Indians
in southern Mexico, mushrooms helped fuel the counterculture of the
1960s. Author Carlos Castaneda, while a graduate student at UCLA,
wrote of his "magical time" with a Mexican shaman who introduced him
to mushrooms and other hallucinogens.

In 1970, Congress made it illegal to posses hallucinogens, including
psilocybin and LSD, by classifying them as Schedule I, meaning they
had no legitimate medical use.

"All research was shut down," said UCLA psychiatrist Dr. Charles S. Grob.

In the late 1990s, regulators began approving experiments again,
sparked by discoveries in neuroscience that illuminated the
biochemical basis of mood and consciousness. The advances focused on
the complex role of the brain chemical serotonin -- a
neurotransmitter that passes signals between cells.

Spread throughout the brain are a variety of receptors that respond
to serotonin. In some instances, a flow of serotonin can alter moods,
such as depression, euphoria, anxiety and aggression. The chemical is
also believed to be involved with nausea, body temperature and
appetite control.

Many hallucinogens, including psilocybin, mimic the action of
serotonin on various receptors. When the drugs circulate in the
brain, they can amplify, distort and cross signals. Sounds have
colors, and motions become out-of-body experiences.

The drugs can trigger emotionally charged states and potentially
dangerous behavior. Even the most optimistic psychedelic researchers
acknowledge that at best psilocybin will become a special-purpose
drug administered under tight supervision because reactions vary.

In addition to the sensory effects, hallucinogens create mental
states in which patients become unusually open to suggestion, Grob said.

He wanted to test whether that ability could be used to alleviate the
suffering of terminal cancer patients overcome with a sense of hopelessness.

Grob modeled his study after one conducted at Spring Grove Medical
Center, a psychiatric hospital near Baltimore.

The Spring Grove patients took LSD. Grob is using psilocybin, which
is shorter-acting and considered somewhat less risky. The drug is
produced in small quantities under special Drug Enforcement
Administration permits.

Grob has given the drug to seven terminally ill cancer patients.

In Sakuda's case, weeks of counseling planted a desire to overcome
her fears and sense of isolation. Since her diagnosis, she had
avoided friends and kept her feelings bottled up.

The experiment took place in a comfortable hospital room, under the
close watch of a medical team. She wore eyeshades and headphones with
soft music playing.

Sakuda recalled sensing her husband's sadness over her illness and
feeling a burden lifted from her.

"It is not logical. It comes to you like that," she said.

Sakuda died Nov. 10. Her husband, Norbert Litzinger, feels that the
drug made a difference. "There was a rebirth around her and it didn't stop."

The power of the drug extends beyond psychological effects. Dr. John
Halpern and colleagues at McLean Hospital in Boston have been looking
at the ability of magic mushrooms to treat cluster headaches, which
affect about 1 million Americans, mostly men.

The pain can be so severe that they are known as "suicide" headaches,
occurring like clockwork at the same time each day, or the same month
each year. No treatment has been shown to extend remissions from pain.

Halpern examined medical records of 48 patients who had taken
hallucinogenic mushrooms and reported in Neurology that the majority
of them found partial or complete relief from cluster attacks.

He speculated that the drug acts on the thalamus, a brain region
populated with serotonin receptors. A clinical trial is needed to
establish whether the mushrooms really work, Halpern said.

"These are not people you'd expect from the drug culture," he said.
"They are lawyers, teachers, business owners. They have a painful and
debilitating condition, and found meaningful relief."

Clandestine Self-Treatment

Those who have used hallucinegenic mushrooms in the U.S. to ease
their headaches are all lawbreakers.

They have become part of a new mushroom underground. Many of its
denizens are like Bob Wold -- a 53-year-old maintenance worker and
Little League coach who had never taken hallucinogenic drugs before.
He knew they could be dangerous.

Wold, who lives near Chicago, said his headaches felt like an ice
pick being jammed through his eye. Once, they made him drive his fist
through a plaster wall at home. Another time he pounded his head
against the shower tiles so hard some of them cracked.

Seeking help, Wold stumbled across a website for cluster headache
sufferers touting hallucinogenic mushrooms.

A man he met on the Internet mailed Wold 20 dried brown mushrooms.
The recipe called for a very light tea, not strong enough to cause
hallucinations.

After that, Wold started growing his own mushrooms.

Wold has formed an organization to fund research aimed at developing
a pharmaceutical version of psilocybin.

But at home, he must make sure his crop is well hidden from his young
grandchildren.

Former Washington lobbyist Stuart Miller, 49, described his secret
life as a mushroom user as "bizarre."

Miller had frequent cluster headaches and carried capsules containing
ground mushrooms everywhere. As he passed through security daily on
Capitol Hill, or made his way through an airport, Miller worried that
a search would uncover the capsules "and my career would be gone."

He was never caught. He has moved to Mexico to care for an aging parent.

Magic mushrooms grow wild in a nearby field.