Magic Mushrooms & Mental Health: Can the NHS Embrace Psychedelic Treatments?

The Psychedelic Renaissance: Hope, Healing, and Hard Questions

For Larissa Hope, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, psilocybin, marked a profound turning point in her battle with severe mental health challenges. Cast in the TV drama ‘Skins’ at just 17, the sudden fame unexpectedly resurfaced deep-seated trauma. Traditional antidepressants offered little relief, but a small, clinically supervised dose of psilocybin brought an unexpected awakening.

“I burst out crying,” she recalls, nearly two decades later. “It was the first time in my life I had ever felt a sense of belonging and safety in my body. I kept saying, 'I'm home, I'm home'.” This singular experience, combined with ongoing therapy, empowered her to confront suicidal thoughts that had once felt insurmountable.

Yet, not every journey into psychedelics yields such transformative outcomes. Jules Evans, a university researcher, recounts a terrifying experience at 18 after taking LSD recreationally. He describes falling into a “deluded” state, convinced everyone was judging him, believing he had permanently damaged his mind. “It was the most terrifying experience of my life,” he states.

Today, Evans directs the Challenging Psychedelic Experiences Project, offering support to individuals struggling after psychedelic use. Years after his own ordeal, he grappled with social anxiety, panic attacks, and was diagnosed with PTSD. These two starkly different narratives underscore the central dilemma facing doctors, regulators, and policymakers today:Should the NHS use magic mushrooms to treat mental health?

A Medical Quandary: Psychedelics on the Horizon?

This critical question has surged to the forefront as a wave of new research suggests psychedelic compounds could offer groundbreaking treatments for conditions like depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), PTSD, trauma, and addictions to alcohol and gambling.

Currently, the therapeutic use of psychedelic medicine remains illegal outside of approved research or clinical trials. However, since 2022, over 20 such trials have explored various psychedelic medicines for mental health conditions. While many studies indicate promising benefits, others present mixed or inconclusive results, and only a few have found no clear benefit on primary measures.

A highly anticipated phase three clinical trial, led by UK biotech firm Compass Pathways into psilocybin, is expected to release its findings later this year. The UK's medicines regulator is keenly awaiting this data as it considers whether to ease current restrictions and permit the use of psychedelic medicine beyond research settings.

Optimism Meets Caution in the Medical Community

Professor Oliver Howes, chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists' Psychopharmacology Committee, expresses cautious optimism. He views psychedelics as a promising new avenue for treating psychiatric disorders, potentially even for NHS patients.

“One of the key messages is that this is something we desperately need – more treatments and better treatments for mental health disorders… These treatments are really interesting because they've shown promise in these small-scale studies… and have the potential to work quicker.”

However, Prof. Howes strongly emphasizes the crucial need for robust trial results. “It's really important that we get evidence and not overhype the potential benefits,” he warns.

This cautionary stance is echoed by others. A September 2025 report from the Royal College of Psychiatrists highlighted the potential dangers of psychedelics, reminding that their recreational use is not only illegal but can be profoundly harmful.

From Counterculture to Clinical Trials: A Brief History

The relationship between humanity and mind-altering substances is ancient, with magic mushrooms, opium, and cannabis historically used for both recreation and ritual. By the 1960s and 70s, LSD became synonymous with the counterculture movement, famously championed by Harvard psychologist Timothy Leary's call to “turn on, tune in, drop out.”

However, this era also saw psychedelics linked to social unrest and perceived moral decline. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, most of these drugs were banned, and scientific research into their potential was severely curtailed.

A resurgence began in the 2010s, thanks to groundbreaking scientific work by Professor David Nutt and his team at Imperial College London. Their subsequent clinical trials indicated psilocybin could be as effective as conventional antidepressants, often with fewer side effects. Prof. Nutt highlighted another significant advantage: its rapid action.

“We thought rather than wait for eight weeks for antidepressants to switch off the part of the brain associated with depression, maybe psilocybin could switch it off in the space of a few minutes.”

While scientifically compelling, this view isn't universally accepted. Prof. Nutt, despite being a respected scientist, has generated controversy, notably leading to his dismissal in 2009 as chair of the government's drugs advisory body for comments seen as incompatible with his advisory role.

Targeting Addiction: A New Frontier for Psychedelics

Prof. Nutt's pioneering studies sparked global interest in the therapeutic potential of other psychedelic drugs. At University College London, neuroscientist Dr. Ravi Das is investigating why some habits solidify into addictions while others fade. He believes psychedelics could hold the key.

His current study is recruiting heavy drinkers to examine whether dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a short-acting psychedelic, can disrupt the brain's memory and learning systems involved in addiction. This research builds on evidence suggesting psilocybin can break habitual behaviors linked to substance abuse.

“Every time someone drinks, a bit like Pavlov's dog, you're learning to associate things in the environment with the rewarding effect of alcohol,” Dr. Das explains. “We've been focusing on whether certain drugs, such as psychedelics, can break down those associations.”

Though an early-stage endeavor, successful trials could pave the way for this treatment to be offered via the NHS, pending regulatory approval. “If psychedelic therapies prove to be both safe and more effective than current treatments, I would hope to see them made accessible via the NHS — rather than to just the privileged few who can afford them privately,” Dr. Das asserts.

While ketamine is already legally used in medical treatment in the UK, other psychedelics like DMT, LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA are currently classified as having no legitimate medical use, permitting their study only under stringent, difficult-to-obtain licenses. Dr. Das hopes that compelling scientific evidence will prompt the government to re-evaluate these classifications.

Navigating the Regulatory Maze: Safety First

However, determining the precise effects of psychedelic drugs remains complex. An analysis published in the British Medical Journal in November 2024 by Cédric Lemarchand and colleagues raised critical questions:

“Because hallucinogens are often combined with a psychotherapy component, it is difficult to separate the effects of the drug from the therapeutic context, complicating comprehensive evaluations and product labelling.”

The analysis also warned that short-term trials might not uncover the “potential for harm and serious adverse events from long-term use of hallucinogens… The potential for abuse or misuse must also be considered.”

Despite promising research, doctors remain cautious. Prof. Howes maintains that, with the exception of ketamine, psychedelic treatments should not become routine medical practice in the UK outside of research settings until larger, more rigorous trials provide robust evidence of their safety and effectiveness.

“In a clinical trial setting, it's very carefully evaluated. If people take these on their own or in a backstreet clinic, then there is no guarantee of that and the safety issues start becoming a major issue.”

Data compiled by the Challenging Psychedelic Experiences Project supports these warnings, indicating that 52% of regular psychedelic users have reported intensely challenging trips, with 39% considering it among the most difficult experiences of their lives. Furthermore, 6.7% considered self-harm or harming others, and 8.9% reported impairment lasting over a day. Some individuals required medical or psychiatric intervention, with negative effects persisting for weeks, months, or even years.

Mr. Evans argues, “Ideally, I would love doctors and regulators to know more about these adverse effects, and how people can recover from them, before they say, any of these therapies are safe.”

Breaking Down Barriers: The Call for Research Reform

Prof. Nutt, Prof. Howes, and Dr. Das all agree that progress is being hampered by the arduous process of securing permission for medically supervised clinical trials. “There are so many people suffering unnecessarily,” Prof. Nutt told BBC News, “And some of them are dying, because of the unreasonable barriers to research and treatment that we face in this country. It is, in my view, a moral failing.”

He passionately advocates that once these medicines prove safe and effective, they must be made available through the NHS to all who need them, not exclusively through the private sector, as occurred with medical cannabis. This sentiment is echoed by Prof. Howes, who despite his caution, calls for the government to review regulations that lead to lengthy delays in desperately needed research.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs staunchly maintains that Schedule 1 drugs, like most psychedelics, have “no medicinal value,” justifying the tightest controls for public protection. While the government has backed plans to streamline licensing for some clinical trials approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and Health Research Authority (HRA), progress remains slow. A cross-government working group is coordinating a cautious rollout, pending pilot project results, yet some doctors, including Prof. Howes, find the pace frustratingly sluggish: “There's still a lot of red tape holding things up.”

The Future: Can Magic Mushrooms Transform NHS Mental Healthcare?

Supporters of psychedelic medicine pin their hopes on the forthcoming phase three trials from Compass Pathways, believing they could catalyse further regulatory relaxation, at least for research purposes.

Larissa Hope, whose personal story began this discussion, profoundly believes in the importance of these trials. Her experience with psilocybin offered crucial insight into her suicidal ideation and trauma. “I had a solid plan to end my life. Then suddenly, death wasn't the only way,” she shares. “Under psilocybin, my nervous system began, for the first time, to recognise what peace felt like.”

The debate over whetherShould the NHS use magic mushrooms to treat mental healthis far from settled. It's a complex intersection of personal experience, scientific promise, historical stigma, and regulatory caution. As research continues to unfold, the possibility of a transformative shift in mental healthcare, accessible to all through the NHS, moves slowly but steadily closer to reality.