Former NHLer Riley Cote advocating psilocybin as a treatment for post-concussion symptoms... and there's growing evidence it WORKS

[Undrafted]

A friend sent me this article this morning from Rolling Stone:

 

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/psychedelics-brain-injury-sports-riley-cote-1367947/ https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/psychedelics-brain-injury-sports-riley-cote-1367947/

 

While I've read a fair bit over the last couple of years about psilocybin (aka "magic mushrooms) being used therapeutically for depression and PTSD, this is the first time I've read it being applied to post-concussion symptoms.  The above article is a bit of a long read, so I'll post some key excerpts:

 

Quote

One of Cote’s biggest success stories might be retired NHL star and two-time Stanley Cup champion Daniel Carcillo. Nine years of pro hockey had left Carcillo suffering from light sensitivity, headaches, insomnia, anxiety, depression, slurred speech, suicidal ideation, and more. He was public about it, speaking out toward the end of his career, in 2015, about his concussion history, hockey’s disregard for players’ health, and his own failed attempts to find some solution in modern medicine.

After Carcillo retired, Cote says he reached out to him for more than a year about trying cannabis and psilocybin. No luck. It was only when Carcillo reached his darkest point, and started thinking about how he might get a rope around the big wood beams in his ceiling, that “desperation,” as he describes it, drove him to meet with Cote and learn more.

Cote made arrangements for Carcillo to attend a mushroom ceremony in Colorado, a decriminalized state. That first experience, says Carcillo, included the spiritual sensations that psilocybin is known to induce — and something more. A few days later, Carcillo realized that he could start crossing off symptoms: light sensitivity, slurred speech, his suicidal feelings giving way to hope.

Carcillo came home from Colorado and started taking microdoses of psilocybin and occasional breakthrough amounts. He began to enjoy that sense of rebirth that Cote, Washington, and so many others describe. Soon, he was in the news, crediting Cote with “saving my life.”

Quote

In science, a story like Carcillo’s might be dismissed as only an anecdote. But his recovery is seemingly validated through brain scans. The images Carcillo received from neurologists before he tried psilocybin showed a brain suffering from decreased connectivity. Big pockets of red signified areas of the brain that weren’t communicating. His slurred speech was a byproduct — the signals from one part of his brain having to travel around these red areas, a slowdown that affected his enunciation. According to Mark Wingertzahn, Wesana’s chief scientific officer, those initial scans qualified Carcillo for a diagnosis of moderate traumatic brain injury.

After he’d come home, however, and continued his own ad hoc psilocybin therapy for about six months, Carcillo got another set of scans. “What [doctors] were able to see is, those areas of red may have gone down to blue, or in some cases white, which is consistent with that normal brain pattern,” says Wingertzahn, meaning Carcillo’s brain was suddenly showing greater connectivity and function. What interested Wingertzahn most, though, was what happened to Carcillo’s symptoms, which the former hockey player says have been reduced, on a scale from one to 10, to a number not even on the menu: “Zero.”

 

I find the second excerpt quite revealing: the difference in brain scans before and after make a compelling case that this is more than just a psycho-somatic/placebo effect or mere anecdotal testimony--there's some real physical, medical evidence of it's efficacy.

Edited June 23, 2022 by Undrafted
reformatted quotes for legibility and emphasis

[DrJockitch]

Psilocybin and Ketamine have some fairly good evidence of being quite useful in specific situations. 
‘Then again heroine started as a magical non-addictive pain reliever and that was then used as the model to sell OxyContin so…caution. 

[Undrafted]

4 minutes ago, DrJockitch said:

Psilocybin and Ketamine have some fairly good evidence of being quite useful in specific situations. 
‘Then again heroine started as a magical non-addictive pain reliever and that was then used as the model to sell OxyContin so…caution. 

Well, there's a major difference between opiates and psilocybin, and that is that opiates of all kinds are proven to be physically addictive (by that, I mean there are physical withdrawal symptoms that contribute to habitual use) and psilocybin is not. 

[Alflives]

3 minutes ago, DrJockitch said:

Psilocybin and Ketamine have some fairly good evidence of being quite useful in specific situations. 
‘Then again heroine started as a magical non-addictive pain reliever and that was then used as the model to sell OxyContin so…caution. 

i think many people, who are suffering so much they are considering suicide, would kiss a shark on the nose if it would give them relief.  

[Hamhuis Hip Check]

I got an ounce of golden teacher shrooms the other day so i volunteer as tribute to test this

[Ghostsof1915]

Not just NHL'ers but NFL'ers and CFL'ers  need relief too.

[Ghostsof1915]

Just now, Hamhuis Hip Check said:

I got an ounce of golden teacher shrooms the other day so i volunteer as tribute to test this

You have to take a placebo as well.....

[Hamhuis Hip Check]

2 minutes ago, Ghostsof1915 said:

You have to take a placebo as well.....

Thats fine, how high do these “placebos” get you and where do i buy them?

[Ghostsof1915]

Yeah I figured I'd walk into that one....

[Undrafted]

19 minutes ago, Ghostsof1915 said:

Not just NHL'ers but NFL'ers and CFL'ers  need relief too.

In the full article, Cote also got a couple of football players from both leagues to try it, with similar encouraging results that Carcillo enjoyed.

 

There's a lot of people, not just ex-athletes, who could be helped by this treatment.

[diesel_3]

1 hour ago, Ghostsof1915 said:

Not just NHL'ers but NFL'ers and CFL'ers  need relief too.

This has been a topic for Veterans as well.

As a Vet myself suffering everyday of the effects of PTSD, sometimes we want something a little different than pills, pills, and more pills!

 

I am a medicinal marijuana user, but have recently been reading more about the use of Psilocybin and might try and find out more information about how I can get involved in something like this.

 

[DrJockitch]

2 hours ago, Undrafted said:

Well, there's a major difference between opiates and psilocybin, and that is that opiates of all kinds are proven to be physically addictive (by that, I mean there are physical withdrawal symptoms that contribute to habitual use) and psilocybin is not. 

And stimulants, and benzodiazepines and …. The list of drugs sold to doctors as non-addicting is long and horribly misleading. 
There is much more to addiction than physical dependence, in fact many drugs used appropriately are also cause physical dependence such as antidepressants. The bigger indication of addiction are the maladaptive behaviours. 
‘I wasn’t really specifically commenting on psilocybin, just preaching caution as these stories often start this way and end up somewhere often tragically different. I am thrilled that there is potential therapy for any type of traumatic brain injury. 

Edited June 23, 2022 by DrJockitch

[Undrafted]

42 minutes ago, DrJockitch said:

And stimulants, and benzodiazepines and …. The list of drugs sold to doctors as non-addicting is long and horribly misleading. 
There is much more to addiction than physical dependence, in fact many drugs used appropriately are also cause physical dependence such as antidepressants. The bigger indication of addiction are the maladaptive behaviours. 
‘I wasn’t really specifically commenting on psilocybin, just preaching caution as these stories often start this way and end up somewhere often tragically different. I am thrilled that there is potential therapy for any type of traumatic brain injury. 

I understand your point and don't disagree--there's also the issue psychological addiction with some of the other drugs you mentioned.

 

I think it's worth adding another pertinent excerpt from the article:

 

Quote

The reduction of symptoms is what the FDA does care about, says Wingertzahn, who spent 25 years at pharma companies, including Pfizer, getting new drugs to market. He thinks psilocybin-based medicines will be approved in three to five years.

Human trials have shown significant success in the areas of depression, death anxiety, smoking cessation, positive personality changes, and more. Not only that, a pair of studies have suggested that psilocybin treats depression at rates at least equal to, and by some measures much better than, today’s available meds — along with a whole different class of side effects.

Listed side effects for drugs like Lexapro include nausea, sleepiness, weakness, dizziness, anxiety, trouble sleeping, delayed ejaculation, painful erections, difficulty with orgasms, sweating, shaking, reduced appetite, and dry mouth. Noted side effects of psychedelics, aside from that small number who experience a psychotic break, and the occasional bout of nausea or insomnia, include joy, calm, increased awareness, self-confidence, and a sometimes obnoxious desire to tell everybody you meet about your awesome &^@#ing experience.

 

[Undrafted]

49 minutes ago, diesel_3 said:

This has been a topic for Veterans as well.

As a Vet myself suffering everyday of the effects of PTSD, sometimes we want something a little different than pills, pills, and more pills!

 

I am a medicinal marijuana user, but have recently been reading more about the use of Psilocybin and might try and find out more information about how I can get involved in something like this.

 

Sadly, from what I've read, Health Canada is dragging their heels when it comes to approving such treatment, so you may have to wait if you want to go through official channels.  At the same time, I'm not sure if I'd recommend trying things out on your own, so I really don't know what your options might be.

[Maniwaki Canuck]

Very interesting and great news for the afflicted.  The neuro-connective and neuro-regenerative properties of psylocybin do seem to be legit.  There are boosters like Paul Stammets who maybe push it a bit farther than it will go, but without them the clinical work will never get done.  I also note with approval that people these days don't tend to treat mushrooms and other hallucinogens like party drugs quite the way we did when I was young.  Take it seriously, have someone look after you and it will probably work out better. 

[DrJockitch]

25 minutes ago, Undrafted said:

I understand your point and don't disagree--there's also the issue psychological addiction with some of the other drugs you mentioned.

 

I think it's worth adding another pertinent excerpt from the article:

 

 

Painful erections you say…

[Undrafted]

11 minutes ago, DrJockitch said:

Painful erections you say…

 

LOL, in hindsight, maybe I shouldn't have included that last paragraph, but I thought the contrast of listed side-effects between industry anti-depressants like the one cited in the article (Lexapro) and psilocybin treatments was worth showing

[DrJockitch]

45 minutes ago, Undrafted said:

 

LOL, in hindsight, maybe I shouldn't have included that last paragraph, but I thought the contrast of listed side-effects between industry anti-depressants like the one cited in the article (Lexapro) and psilocybin treatments was worth showing

Yeah but also realize the difference in how the side effects list are generated between a drug that goes through clinical trials and one you “gotta try man”. If they put mushrooms through proper trials, the adverse events profile will look a lot different. I am all for them doing but this is comparing Apples to fighter jets currently. 

Edited June 23, 2022 by DrJockitch

[D.B Cooper]

Can confirm for sure.  
Mushrooms will put a big smile on your face!    Hahah

 

A while ago, my friend told me he started micro-dosing mushrooms.  
 

Me: cool dude, how much are you taking?

Him: about 2-3 grams throughout the day. 
Me:  Thats not micro-dosing. That’s just eating mushrooms.  
Him:  oh.  Ok. But I like the way it makes me feel.   
hahahahahha

Then we ate some, and had a great time.  
 

 

This post isn’t about them actually helping, 

but they are a good time. 

 

ONLY IF YOU ARE ABOVE 19. 
DB Cooper says stay in school and don’t do drugs!    Even if some of them are awesome. 

 

[Undrafted]

2 hours ago, DrJockitch said:

Yeah but also realize the difference in how the side effects list are generated between a drug that goes through clinical trials and one you “gotta try man”. If they put mushrooms through proper trials, the adverse events profile will look a lot different. I am all for them doing but this is comparing Apples to fighter jets currently. 

I'm not so sure about that, simply because when I was young (many, many years ago ), I'd used psilocybin mushrooms recreationally numerous times and the only adverse effects I recall was a little nausea to start.  And the same can be said about all the people who consumed them with me.  That said, it's a fair criticism to say that's merely anecdotal.

 

By the same token, when I was in my mid-30s, I was misdiagnosed by a doctor and put on anti-depressants and shortly after, they had to wean me off of them because I experienced many of the side effects the drug's abstract listed.  Needless to say, I did not want anything to do with those types of drugs ever again.