Psilocybin Pain Resources: Scientists And Sufferers Talk

As you begin your search for information resources on psilocybin and pain, you are likely to be inundated with large amounts of hype and misinformation. Frshminds cuts through the noise to bring you 5 videos worth watching as you explore the role of psilocybin in pain management.

Tryp Therapeutics

Tryp Therapeutics is a California-based pharmaceutical company that is spearheading the next wave of psychedelic drug development for chronic pain conditions like fibromyalgia, complex regional pain syndrome, and phantom limb pain.

Here, chairman and CEO of Tryp Therapeutics, Greg McKee, provides an insight into their clinical development programs for chronic pain conditions and explains why Tryp are focusing specifically on psilocybin and not other classic psychedelic compounds. 

Clusterbusters, Inc.,

Clusterbusters, Inc., is a non-profit organization dedicated to the education and research of cluster headaches — a chronic pain condition affecting over 300,000 Americans. There is currently no cure for cluster headache, and conventional treatments have unreliable efficacy rates.

The one treatment that does appear to offer effective, reliable, and long-lasting relief is small doses of psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin. 

Speaking at a seminar on psychedelic medicine, founder and executive director of Clusterbusters, Bob Wold, discusses the clinical use of psychedelics particularly in the treatment of cluster headaches and provides a unique insight into what is one of the most excruciatingly painful chronic pain conditions.

Dr. Christopher Gottschalk

In this video, professor of neurology Dr. Christopher Gottschalk delivers a presentation on research currently being conducted at Yale University investigating the use of psilocybin, the active ingredient in so-called “magic mushrooms”, in the treatment of migraine and cluster headache.

Dr. Gottschalk, who co-authored a study in 2015 exploring the use of indoleamine hallucinogens in cluster headache, also gives a rundown on conventional treatments for these chronic pain conditions and how they compare to psychedelics.

Dr. Francois Louw

Dr. Francois Louw is an emergency room physician and practices at Bill Nelems Pain and Research Centre in Kelowna, British Columbia. Dr. Louw discusses the anti-nociceptive properties of the classic psychedelics LSD and psilocybin and outlines hypothesized mechanisms of action that may be responsible for their perceived efficacy. 

Dr. Louw also provides a comprehensive insight into the history of research using psychedelics for chronic pain, including studies on cancer, cluster headache, migraine, and phantom limb pain, and discusses the research currently being done at research institutions in US, UK, and the Netherlands.

“Suicide or psychedelics”

“Suicide or psychedelics” — these are the words of Dan, a cluster headaches patient who has managed to successfully treat one of the most painful afflictions known to humankind using psilocybin-containing mushrooms.

Clinical trials further investigating the potential of psychedelics to treat cluster headaches are currently ongoing. Should controlled investigations yield consistently positive results, psilocybin could become a legal treatment for cluster headaches in the future.

Cluster headaches currently affect 1 in 1,000 people, and with standard medications having unreliable efficacy rates, novel treatments are desperately required. 

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