Psilocybin doesn’t help depression in pregnant rats; Mushrooms independently evolved ability to produce psilocybin twice; California psychedelics-related bill awaits governor’s signature
Plus: Federal vs. state response to ibogaine, and UK doctors say there’s not yet enough evidence supporting efficacy of psychedelics
Happy Friday and welcome back to The Microdose, an independent journalism newsletter brought to you by the U.C. Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics.
Psilocybin doesn’t help depression in pregnant rats
Researchers are looking into the use of psychedelics for a variety of health issues — one recent hotspot of study is postpartum depression. A few weeks ago, we spoke with OBGYN M. Camille Hoffman, an investigator on a clinical trial using psychedelic company Reunion’s “psilocybin-like” drug RE104 to treat postpartum depression. Hoffman said the company is conducting studies to build a safety profile for RE104 and to measure its halflife in breastmilk. But it’s still unclear how psilocybin might affect postpartum or peripartum (a period that includes pregnancy as well as after birth) depression, and what impact psilocybin could have on fetuses and breastfeeding children. Such research is very difficult to conduct, as there are ethical implications of studying pregnant people, fetuses, and newborns.
A new study published in Nature Communications on Tuesday studied pregnant rats and their babies, and found that psilocybin was not effective as a treatment for female rats induced to develop stress behavior similar to postpartum depression. In fact, psilocybin actually made them display more anxiety-related behavior. However, non-pregnant rats who went through the same stress-inducing tests exhibited behavioral improvements after taking psilocybin, suggesting that “psilocybin may possess a distinct risk profile when administered during the postpartum period,” the authors write. And the researchers think there could be implications for babies exposed to psilocybin too. Some baby rats were exposed to psilocin, the active metabolite of psilocybin, through breastmilk; others received psilocin injections. As adults, the rats exposed to psilocin as babies drank less of a sugary substance compared to rats not exposed to psilocin. This is a commonly used measure of what researchers call anhedonia — a lack of interest in enjoyable activities, a classic sign of depression.
Of course rats are not humans, and the authors acknowledge this, and point out that though rats showed “long-lasting detrimental behavioral effects” after being exposed to psilocin in infancy, such effects on human infants could be avoided if parents avoid breastfeeding for several days after taking psilocybin or psilocin. But still, they caution that while psychedelics have largely been shown to be safe and effective in treating depression, “the same may not be true for exposure during the postpartum period” — and more research needs to be done to establish their safety for both pregnant people and their babies.
Mushrooms independently evolved ability to produce psilocybin twice
Psilocybe is one of the world’s best-known genus of mushrooms — they grow across the world, and are famous for containing the psychoactive compound psilocybin. But some species of the Inocybe genus also contain psilocybin — and a new analysis published in Angewandte Chemie, the German Chemical Society’s journal, suggests that these two genera Inocybe and Psilocybe evolved psilocybin separately. Just as mechanisms for synthesizing caffeine evolved independently in several genera, like Coffea (coffee) and Camellia (tea), these findings suggest that the mechanisms for synthesizing psilocybin evolved at least twice in different genera of mushrooms.
Furthermore, the authors write that their work contributes to the understanding of how fungi genes produce psilocybin, opening the door to other ways of potentially synthesizing the drug. They cite a study published earlier this year by some of the same authors that emerged from this work, which developed a new method of synthesizing psilocybin.
But according to the authors, the answer to the “most intriguing question” is still elusive: why fungi evolved to make psilocybin in the first place — and why that ability evolved independently more than once.
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California bill expediting psychedelics research awaits governor’s signature
Earlier this year, psychedelic therapy advocacy organization VETS told The Microdose it was sponsoring Assembly Bill 1103, which was introduced in the California State Assembly in February. The bill passed both the State Assembly and State Senate in September, and it has been on Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk for a final signature since September 16. Newsom has until October 12 to sign or veto the bill; if he does not take action, it will become law.
Over the last few years, psychedelics studies in California have faced a bottleneck in research approvals due to a law requiring all studies of Schedule I or II drugs to receive authorization from an obscure board called the Research Advisory Panel of California (RAP-C), which is run through the state’s Department of Justice. In 2023, RAP-C stopped meeting over confusion about whether the panel was subject to state open meeting laws. The committee could not share in public some of the details for studies that involved trade secrets or proprietary information. To clear the bottleneck, the state passed a bill in the 2024 legislative session allowing RAP-C to hold closed sessions.
The new bill extends RAP-C’s ability to continue holding closed-door meetings until January 1, 2028, and it allows the panel to expedite the review of some studies that use highly-restricted Schedule I or II drugs. The criteria laid out in the bill would allow expedited review of studies involving human subjects if the drug being studied has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as an investigational new drug — a designation that covers MDMA and some forms of psilocybin, LSD, and 5-MeO-DMT — or any research group that has received clearance from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Last week, VETS sent out an email blast encouraging people to write to Governor Newsom in support of the bill. “These studies will not only benefit veterans in California but will ripple across the nation, changing lives, advancing science, and offering hope where it’s desperately needed,” the email said. VETS has also drafted a sample letter which notes the bill was “developed in close consultation with the Chair of the RAP-C.”
Federal vs. state response to ibogaine
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration recently announced that a Colorado man named Ameen Alai was sentenced by a United States District judge to four years in prison for distributing ibogaine, a psychoactive substance found in plants including the iboga bush. In the United States, ibogaine is a Schedule I controlled substance and currently has no accepted medical use. According to the plea agreement, Alai gave ibogaine to someone who later died. “Between April 2019 and March 2021, Alai advocated to others that ibogaine was a means to ‘reset’ the body’s ‘receptors’ to break addictive tendencies,” the DEA’s press release said.
Advocates across the U.S. have made similar claims, and many states are embracing ibogaine. Earlier this year, Arizona and Texas committed millions to funding ibogaine research, and states including Kentucky and Mississippi are currently considering similar proposals. Colorado’s Natural Medicine Advisory Board voted 5-2 to recommend ibogaine be added to the state’s psychedelics program.
UK doctors say there’s not yet enough evidence supporting efficacy of psychedelics
In mid-September, the UK’s Royal College of Psychiatrists released a position statement on psychedelics and related substances (e.g., ketamine and MDMA, which have different mechanisms of action than classic psychedelics like psilocybin and LSD), which concluded that there is not yet enough high-quality evidence to support their use in clinical settings. In the UK, most psychedelics are Schedule I drugs, meaning they are not approved for medical use; ketamine and esketamine, however, are Schedule II drugs, which can be used for medical purposes.
The group also released a set of recommendations for future work to better elucidate the drugs’ potential, which includes more longitudinal work, investigating the interplay between drugs and therapy, and including more psychiatrists in teams conducting studies.
In her memoir The Tell, venture capitalist Amy Griffin describes memories of sexual assault awakened by MDMA-assisted therapy. But many have questions about inconsistencies in her story and its uncanny similarity to the assault of one of her classmates, The New York Times reports. The Times also elucidates Griffin’s close ties to powerful psychedelics organizations: her husband, hedge fund founder John Griffin, has donated $1 million to MAPS, and the couple holds a 15 percent stake in Lykos Therapeutics; Griffin was introduced to her MDMA therapists by Rick Doblin.
On Tuesday, the New York State Assembly’s Health Committee held a public hearing to discuss the therapeutic potential of psilocybin.
Undark’s podcast Entanglements explores whether there’s enough scientific evidence to approve psychedelics for medical use.
WIRED covers the work of Mindstate Design Labs, a company using AI to generate psychedelic-like compounds.
In February, Tranyelle Harshman killed her four children, then died by suicide. Last week, Harshman’s mother filed a lawsuit in Wyoming U.S. District Court against a registered nurse and the psychiatry practice where she works for allegedly prescribing Harshman at-home ketamine and failing to properly monitor her. Harshman’s mother’s lawyer told WyoFile that “the purpose isn’t to demonize ketamine,” but instead challenge the way it is administered.
For Atmos, journalist Mattha Busby takes a microdose of psilocybin and joins a “hikrodosing” group in Santa Cruz, California. “The soothing sounds of a crystal harp, carried by a young female hikrodoser, rang like wind chimes stirred by a soft mountain breeze,” he writes.
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