The UK is undergoing a burgeoning mental health crisis. Prescriptions for antidepressants more than doubled between 2006-2016, mental illness costs some £100 billion per year, and, distressingly, suicide is the leading cause of death among the young. Although the contributory causes are manifold, it is noteworthy that there has been no major breakthrough in drug development for depression and other psychiatric disorders since the discovery of SSRI antidepressants three decades ago. More alarming is the fact that research into the most promising new treatment is being stymied by outdated legislation that can be undone with a minimal amount of bureaucracy in Westminster.
In the last few years, findings from a small corner of psychiatric research have bubbled up to the mainstream news cycle a few times. But so far, the scale of their implications for mental health care has not properly registered. Among researchers, there is a growing sense that the practice of psychiatry is set to be fundamentally changed by psychotherapy assisted by psilocybin, the active component in ‘magic mushrooms.’
