A group of cancer patients in a clinical trial at NYU took a single dose of magic mushrooms and reported feeling lasting benefits five years after that single dose.Many of them said their feelings of depression and anxiety faded, and they said the mushrooms were the reason.This research adds to what we know about the long-term medical benefits of psychedelics.Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.Five years ago, Dinah Bazer took a dose of psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, as part of a clinical trial at New York University. At the time she had ovarian cancer, and like 40% of people with cancer, she was struggling with depression and anxiety.Six months after taking the single dose, she reported feeling reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression. And five years on, she feels free of the fears that gripped her.Bazer, a Brooklyn-based ice skating teacher, was one of 15 cancer patients that participated in the NYU Psilocybin Cancer Anxiety Study, 80% of whom are still feeling the positive effects from that one dose in 2015, according to a new study published on Tuesday.The small but significant study, one of the first to offer long term findings on the effects of psychedelics on the mental state of cancer patients, could have profound implications on the use of psychedelics as a medical treatment, especially for anxiety and depression."What is permanent is that I don't have anxiety about cancer," Bazer told NBC News.That sense of calm stayed with her, even when she was diagnosed with another form of cancer, this time gastrointestinal last March. Bazer said she wasn't anxious about getting testing for her symptoms, or undergoing operations.All of the patients in the study said their single dose changed them in a positive wayPrior to this study, the longest follow-up in any trial of psychedelics occurred at 12 months in a trial of LSD, said study author Gabby Agin-Liebes, a current Ph.D. candidate in clinical psychology at Palo Alto University."This is the first report of long-term effects of psilocybin," she told Insider. "Despite the small sample size, there is a strong, statistically significant suggestion that there are persisting effects of psilocybin-facilitated treatment well beyond the time course of acute drug action."Ten of the participants said taking psychedelics was either the single most meaningful experience of their lives, or in their top five most meaningful experiences. The vast majority (96%) rated it as one of the most spiritually significant experience of their lives. All the participants reported some degree of positive behavioral change due to the psychedelic.Participants were 60% female, 93% white, and 6% Asian. Some 41% were Christian or Jewish, while 33% were atheist or agnostic. Almost all the participants met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders criteria for generalized anxiety disorder as well as cancer-related adjustment disorder with depressed features.Five years on, many patients said they no longer fear rejection, they feel more creative, and "something in me softened""I've always been afraid of rejection,"one of the volunteers, who preferred to remain anonymous, said. "I experienced such overwhelming love in my psilocybin experience, that it gave me new confidence. I threw myself a birthday party and invited more people than I thought I ever could. They came!"Another said: "I'm more creative in my work and take more chances. I'm back to performing, like I did before."And another said: "Something in me softened, and I realized that everyone is just trying, mostly, to do the best they can."While scientists still aren't entirely sure why psychedelics offer such positive benefits, they do have some ideas. One is that psychedelics bring attention to underused parts of the brain, as one researcher described it. Another is that it fundamentally changes the way the brain processes and receives information.Psychedelics researcher Robin Carhart-Harris previously told Insider that the "sense of lubrication, of freedom, of the cogs being loosened and firing in all sorts of unexpected directions" shouldn't be underestimated."There is still much speculation, but it appears to reduce activity in the area of the brain that mediates one's sense of self and identity," Agin-Liebes told Insider. "Researchers believe psilocybin can make the brain more flexible and receptive to new ideas and thought patterns."Psychedelics are being tested as a treatment for depression, and some US cities have decriminalized 'magic' mushroomsIn the 1950s and 60s, "research on LSD and other hallucinogens generated over 1000 scientific papers," according to a US Drug Enforcement Administration report.A decade later, with the passing of 1970's Controlled Substances Act, testing on psychedelics and hallucinogens halted entirely.But rising rates of depression and anxiety have driven scientists to look again at the potential of psychedelics as treatment.The NYU Psychedelic Research Group and the Johns Hopkins Psychedelic Research Center are two big university-backed centers dedicated solely to the study of psychedelics. Both have conducted the expensive, placebo-controlled studies needed to understand more about the drug.The shift has also driven changes in legislation. In recent years, psilocybin has been decriminalized in Denver, Colorado and Oakland, California, with Santa Cruz, California, expected to follow in the coming weeks. Read more:Why psychedelics like magic mushrooms could be a treatment for mental illnessPeople feel more connected to the world around them after a psychedelic tripand it could have profound implicationsResearchers went to festivals to study psychedelic drugs and found they left people feeling happy and connected hours after the high wore offJoin the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: A 45-year-long study discovered trends in successful hyper-intelligent children
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