A year on since psilocybin was approved for private patient use, medical professionals remain cautious about the medicinal use of magic mushrooms in New Zealand.
Psychedelic mushrooms are a Class A drug in New Zealand, but possible benefits of the active ingredient psilocybin are being investigated in research labs here and overseas.
Psilocybin has been shown to help people with depression in trials from universities like Imperial College London and New York University but should not be used by people with a history – or family history – of psychosis.
Currently, just two doctors have Medsafe approval to write prescriptions for psilocybin, but a new online training course run by the Psychedelic Training Centre this month is aiming to upskill more and address concerns about the therapy.
Dr James Simonsson was among 12 health workers – including GPs and psychiatrists – who took part in the training course over six days this month.
He told 1News he was "curious but cautious" about patient use.
"I'm not sure as to whether or not I will be prescribing psilocybin in my clinical practice, but I want to be up to date and aware of the current research," Simonsson said.
Many taking part in the course had seen harm from the illegal use of psychedelics.
"The recreational use does frighten me as a psychiatric doctor because I have seen complex psychosis from use of psilocybin."
Imperial College London’s professor David Nutt, a presenter on the course, said research trials had consistently shown psychedelic mushrooms “break down repetitive processes of negative thoughts which occur in disorders like depression, OCD, anorexia and addiction”.
"We have an evidential database now of hundreds of patients."
Nutt said psilocybin worked in a different part of the brain to Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) – and findings suggested medicinal use could help with neuroplasticity.
"Where psychedelics work on the cortex, the high levels of the brain where we do our thinking and it disrupts instantly the negative thought processes which are present in people's depression. There's the sense of worthlessness or guilt or of not being useful. And also the disruption of the ability to do other things like concentrate and pay attention and do work."
Another presenter on the course, New Zealand-based psychopharmacology professor Suresh Muthukumaraswamy, said he believed medical practitioners' attitudes towards psychedelics were "slowly changing".
"I think it's appropriate that they change slowly, because the evidence is relatively new, so we don't want people to just jump on the latest bandwagon," he said.
'Unfairly held back by prejudices'
Psilocybin therapy has been legal in Australia since 2023. While prescriptions are now legal in New Zealand, Medsafe has not yet had applications to approve or publicly fund any psilocybin products, meaning patients must pay for their own treatment and taken at their own risk.
The medicinal dose is generally around 25mg and treatment costs at least $9000.
Psychedelic mushrooms were endemic to Aotearoa, but possible commercialisation raised some concerns, Simonsson said.
"I do think it's a medicine that's been taken away from Māori. And I do want it to be brought back with some sort of sovereignty and care and not to be focused on being monetised and used haphazardly.”
Medsafe was taking applications from doctors wanting to prescribe the ingredient, but they need to show a thorough knowledge of psilocybin, among many criteria.
Just 10 private patients have been treated in New Zealand so far.
Associate Health Minister David Seymour said the low uptake here was perhaps due to the ingredient being "unfairly held back by prejudices in the past".
"As more people get familiar with it and see the benefits, perhaps those prejudices will evaporate, and more people will have wider access to medicine."
Seymour added that while there had not been any applications for public funding from manufacturers at this stage, data from private providers could be used "to work out whether or not it's a good deal for the taxpayer".
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