Quitting smoking with just one dose of a substance: that’s what it is

Smoking remains one of the leading causes of death in the world, with approx 8 million deaths a year. Many smokers want to quit, but the treatments available, starting with nicotine replacement therapiesfrom patches to gum, often show gods high relapse rates within six months of first use. A recently published study may have identified an unusual but effective approach: the psilocybinthe natural psychedelic compound found in hallucinogenic mushrooms.

A single dose of psilocybin it could prove to be much more effective than traditional nicotine patches for those who want to quit smoking. He hypothesizes it a randomized study pilot published on JAMA Network Openconducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, United States.

What emerged from the study

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The study, conducted between 2015 and 2023, involved 82 adult smokers with an average age of 47.6 years, accustomed to smoking on average almost 16 cigarettes a day and with at least six failed attempts to quit. Participants were divided into two groups: the first was administered a single high dose of psilocybin (30 mg per 70 kg of body weight) during a guided session in a controlled environment, while the second was prescribed 8-10 weeks of nicotine patches. Both groups followed a parallel 13-week program of cognitive-behavioral therapy.

Quit smoking with just one dose of psilocybin

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The results six months after the start of the study revealed that 40.5% of participants treated with psilocybin maintained sustained abstinence from smokingcompared to just 10% of the group treated with patches. The psilocybin group then presented more than six times more likely to experience prolonged abstinence and over three times greater than having not smoked in the seven days prior to the check-up.

During the psilocybin session, participants remained lying with a mask over their eyes and music playing on their headphones, invited to focus on their internal experience. According to the researchers, the substance may work by temporarily increasing mental flexibilityallowing patients to reframe their relationship with addiction, a shift in perspective that could help maintain abstinence even after the psychedelic experience.

And safety?

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In terms of security, the researchers point out, no serious adverse events were recorded: the most common side effects were transient increases in blood pressure, nausea and headache.

Despite the good result, the authors of the study urge caution: this is a pilot study with a limited sample of subjectsfree of blindness and with little diversity in the enrolled population. This means that, in view of a possible future green light for the general population, some measures will be necessary larger experiments to confirm the results obtained. Another aspect to consider, which could put a brake on this method of quitting smoking, is that psilocybin, in the United States and Europe, remains classified among the substances without recognized medical useand its therapeutic use is currently confined to clinical research.