Is there 'mushroom' for Psychedelics?

Is there mushroom for Psychedelics in the treatment of mental health today?

By Grace Farrar

The World Health Organisation (WHO) released a statement in 2019 stating that we are currently experiencing an ongoing mental health crisis. This has resulted in a demand for further understanding into mental health and thus has enabled for a rediscovered interest in the use of psychedelics as ‘potential psychiatric treatments’ (Bird, 2019) and considered as ‘game-changing’ in the treatment of mental health (Nawrat, 2020).

In recent years, there appears to have been a more ‘open-mindedness’ towards psychedelic drugs such as LSD and Mushrooms by the clinical community. Previous research attitudes have been sceptical towards psychedelics due to their ongoing association and popularity for recreational use which has lead to a heavy stigmatisation attached to them within the medical field (Nutt, 2015, Nawrat, 2020).

This is because of the common conception of psychedelics being linked directly to the hippie movement but the hard work of research at institutions such as Imperial College London have enabled for a reconsideration of the use of psychedelics in mental health treatment, with arguments being as strong as them having the ability to ‘reset the brain’ (Nawrat, 2020, Wong, 2017).

So how do psychedelics work in treating mental health? Basically, the biology behind it is that the primary target for psychedelics is the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor (Nawrat, 2020), which is responsible for the excretion of serotonin into the brain. Serotonin is the key hormone that stabilises our mood (, 2021), and low levels of serotonin are what can be associated with mental health issues like depression and anxiety. This is why the use of psychedelics like LSD have been reviewed to investigate their treatments with mood disorders because of the way they react with hormones in the brain (Rucker et al, 2016).

At Unmasked, we are not promoting the use of psychedelics, we are purely highlighting the new research that is being done to address the option of psychedelic use in treating mental health. As WHO highlighted in 2019, because we are in a mental health crisis and the current services are exhausted with lengthy waiting lists or side effects from taking certain SSRI medication (Nawrat, 2020), it is increasingly important that we research the alternative avenues for treatment that are out there and could possibly help.



Unmasked Co-ordinator

15 April 2021

Is my mental health draining?


14 April 2021

"It's just a phase"

Copy of Untitled

7 April 2021

The Label of Mental Health - Who am I?

psychedelic multicolored soap bubble abstract background 171597001