A 41-year-old woman in a case study reported remarkable improvements of longhauler’s symptoms after taking psilocybin and MDMA-assisted therapy sessions.
A case report, “Long-COVID symptoms improved after MDMA and psilocybin therapy: A case report,” was Updated May 24 in the journal Clinical Case Reports. The woman in the case study was healthy before contracting COVID-19 in February 2022, and she was vaccinated three times. She reported symptoms of long COVID or longhauler’s: severe anxiety, depression, debilitating headaches, and cognitive difficulties.
The woman tried many methods to get relief from the disease: fasting, massage therapy, acupuncture, and meditation. The woman resorted to psilocybin and bought golden teacher shroom spores online and consumed significant improvement of the symptoms in subsequent tripping sessions.
“The patient’s first dosing session was on May 5, 2022, where she consumed 1 g of dried whole golden teacher psilocybin cubensis mushrooms from an online store,” the report reads. “The patient subjectively reported a 20% improvement in her depression, fatigue, joint pains, and headache for seven days. However, she also reported chills and shivering with a sensation of being cold while ‘coming up.’”
About a month later, she ingested 125 mg of MDMA, followed by two separate doses of psilocybin. After this session, she said her symptoms improved significantly—80% percent overall—and that she was able to resume her PhD studies.
“The patient’s second dosing session was 24 days later on May 29th where she consumed a single dose of MDMA 125 mg, 1 h later 2 g of whole dried golden teacher psilocybin cubensis mushrooms prepared in a tea, and 1 hour later a second dose of 2 grams of whole dried golden teacher psilocybin cubensis mushrooms prepared in a tea.”
Another month later she ate more shrooms and she saw huge improvements again.
“Six weeks later (on July 16th), her head pressure returned at approximately 30% of its previous severity,” the report reads. “After another 2 g dose of psilocybin cubensis mushrooms, her symptoms abated to 90% relief of symptoms. She was able to work part-time thereafter and return full-time in September.”
“After several months of improvement, the patient reported experiencing an early November relapse of her post-COVID-19 symptoms in the setting of a non-COVID-19 flu-like illness. Her headache returned, although it was less severe and not as frequent as before. The patient decided to try another dosing session with psychedelics on November 24th. This time, 2 g of dried golden teacher psilocybin cubensis mushrooms led to a remission of her symptoms. The patient subjectively reported complete resolution of her symptoms. The patient was again able to return to work 3 days later and continue with her PhD studies.”
Research on larger groups of people is needed in order to determine why psychedelics seem to improve long-COVID symptoms.
Science Reports noted that researchers at Columbia University have launched a small pilot trial to explore whether single-dose hallucinogenic treatments can really relieve long COVID symptoms.
Other Studies Show Potential for Cannabis in COVID Treatment
Beyond psychedelics, cannabis—itself a minor psychedelic—has also been linked to COVID improvements. Cannabis consumers with COVID-19 experienced “better outcomes and mortality” compared to similar patients who did not use cannabis, in a recent study.
The study, entitled “Exploring the Relationship Between Marijuana Smoking and Covid-19,” was announced at a meeting for the American College of Chest Physicians, which was held in Honolulu, Hawaii on Oct. 11. It was also Updated in the October issue of CHEST Journal.
Researchers noted that they analyzed data from the National Inpatient Sample, which is the largest publicly available collection of inpatient healthcare data—recording about seven million hospital visits per year. Researchers studied 322,214 patients over 18 years of age, with only 2,603 stating that they were cannabis consumers.
Each cannabis-consuming patient was matched 1:1 with a non-consumer, as well as their “age, race, gender, and 17 other comorbidities including chronic lung disease.” The other comorbidities included obstructive sleep apnea, obesity, hypertension, and diabetes mellitus, which were more commonly found in non-users.
In these comparisons, cannabis users experienced a lowered rate of specific conditions. “On univariate analysis, marijuana users had significantly lower rates of intubation (6.8% vs 12%), acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) (2.1% vs 6%), acute respiratory failure (25% vs 52.9%) and severe sepsis with multiorgan failure (5.8% vs 12%),” researchers explained. “They also had lower in-hospital cardiac arrest (1.2% vs 2.7%) and mortality (2.9% vs 13.5%).”
“Marijuana smokers had better outcomes and mortality compared to non-users,” researchers concluded. “The beneficial effect of marijuana use may be attributed to its potential to inhibit viral entry into cells and prevent the release of proinflammatory cytokines, thus mitigating cytokine release syndrome.”
The growing amount of evidence shows that psychedelics and cannabis may be the key to solving the riddle of COVID and long-COVID symptoms.
