Everything You Need to Know About Psilocybin (Magic Mushrooms)

Shrooms, also known as magic mushrooms, are wild or cultivated mushrooms that contain psilocybin, a naturally occurring psychoactive and hallucinogenic compound.

Some research suggests this substance may help relieve symptoms of some mental health conditions. However, mushrooms are illegal in most places and carry risks that people should recognize.

Psilocybin is considered one of the most well-known psychedelics, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

The United States currently does not recognize psilocybin as a medicinal treatment due to its high potential for misuse.

What to Know About Shrooms

Dr. Albert Hofmann first isolated psilocybin in 1958, the same year he discovered lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), despite the fact that certain cultures have been using the hallucinogenic properties of some mushrooms for centuries.

People often prepare magic mushrooms by drying them, then mix them into food or drinks for consumption. Some individuals consume freshly harvested psilocybe mushrooms.

Other Names: Magic mushrooms are also referred to as shrooms, mushies, blue meanies, golden tops, liberty caps, philosopher’s stones, liberties, amani, and agaric.

Drug Class: Hallucinogens include psilocybin.

Common Side Effects:Shrooms are known to cause unwanted side effects such as nausea, yawning, feeling drowsy, nervousness, paranoia, panic, hallucinations, and psychosis.

How to recognize mushrooms

Psilocybin mushrooms resemble dried ordinary mushrooms, featuring long, slender stems that are whitish-gray, and dark brown caps with a light brown or white center. Dried mushrooms are a rusty brown color with isolated areas of off-white.

You can eat mushrooms, mix them with food, or brew them like tea. You can also combine them with cannabis or tobacco and smoke them.

Liberty caps also contain liquid psilocybin, a naturally occurring psychedelic drug. The liquid has a clear brown color and is packaged in a small vial.

What Do Shrooms Do?

Magic mushrooms are hallucinogenic drugs, meaning they can cause you to see, hear, and feel sensations that seem real but are not. However, environmental factors influence the highly variable effects of mushrooms.

A number of factors influence the effects of magic mushrooms, including dosage, age, weight, personality, emotional state, environment, and history of mental illness.

While people often seek out psilocybe mushrooms for a peaceful high, some have reported experiencing anxiety, frightening hallucinations, paranoia, and confusion.

Hospital admissions associated with the use of magic mushrooms are frequently associated with a “bad trip.”

What the Experts Say

Indigenous people of America and Europe have used magic mushrooms for thousands of years for both spiritual and medicinal purposes.

Shrooms have a long history of being associated with spiritual experiences and self-discovery. Many believe that naturally occurring drugs like magic mushrooms, marijuana, and mescaline are sacred herbs that enable people to attain superior spiritual states.

Others take magic mushrooms to experience a sense of euphoria, connection, and a distorted sense of time.

The body converts the psilocybin in mushrooms to psilocin, which influences serotonin in the brain and causes altered and unusual perceptions.

The effects start to take effect in 20 to 40 minutes and can last up to 6 hours, which is the same amount of time it takes for psilocin to metabolize and excrete.

Potential Benefits of Shrooms

While some people take magic mushrooms solely for their psychoactive effects, researchers have also explored psilocybin’s potential therapeutic benefits.

Medical Use

Can mushrooms help with medical conditions? Some say yes. In 2018, researchers from Johns Hopkins University recommended reclassification of psilocybin from Schedule I to Schedule IV in order to allow for medical use.

Psilocybin, being a Schedule 1 drug, is not eligible for medicinal prescriptions. Changes in its classification could potentially make psilocybin mushrooms available by prescription.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins found that psilocybin was an effective treatment for depression and nicotine and alcohol addictions, as well as other substance use disorders. 

Studies have also shown that magic mushrooms were effective for relieving the emotional distress of people with life-threatening cancer diagnoses. 

The Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research at Johns Hopkins is also researching how psychedelics affect a variety of conditions, such as:

• Alzheimer’s disease
• Anorexia nervosa
• Opioid addiction
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome

While researchers are currently investigating the therapeutic uses of psilocybin and other psychedelics, they only use these substances in controlled research and medical settings under the supervision of trained professionals.

Microdosing

Sometimes, people use mushrooms in a process known as microdosing. Microdosing involves taking tiny amounts of a drug to test its benefits while minimizing unwanted side effects.

One study found that people who self-medicated with small dosages of psilocybin were able to relieve cluster headaches while avoiding any psychoactive effects of the drug. 

For a few key reasons, researchers typically advise against self-medicating with psilocybin.

• Outside of a clinical setting, it may be harder to manage your anxiety and other unpleasant or unexpected experiences while under the influence (potentially leading to a disastrous trip).
• You may take too high of a dosage.
• It’s difficult to know the purity of the drug if you’re purchasing it from an unregulated source. 

In addition, people with pre-existing mental health conditions may be more likely to experience adverse effects from psilocybin.

The most comprehensive microdosing study to date finds that it improves mental health.

Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy

Researchers are currently investigating the benefits of using some psychedelic agents in combination with psychotherapy. Researchers are considering psilocybin as a psychedelic therapeutic for treating both addiction and anxiety associated with terminal illness. 9

This therapy may work, in part, through its effects on certain personality traits. One small-scale study involving subjects with treatment-resistant depression found that, after engaging in psychotherapy, their neuroticism scores decreased while their scores in extraversion, openness, and conscientiousness increased. 10

Additional research is ongoing. In 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted breakthrough-therapy status to psilocybin-assisted therapy. This designation aims to improve the research process and hasten the development of drugs that show significant promise in treating serious illnesses.

Are Psilocybe mushrooms legal?

In 2019, Denver became the first city to decriminalize mushrooms. Oakland became the second city less than a month later. Other U.S. cities have followed suit, including Santa Cruz in California and Ann Arbor in Michigan.

This does not mean that shrooms are legal, but that the city is not permitted to “spend resources to impose criminal penalties” on people in possession of the drug. However, in 2020, Oregon became the first state to establish a legal framework for receiving psilocybin therapeutically.

Risks of Psilocybin Shrooms

All hallucinogens carry the risk of triggering mental and emotional problems and causing accidents while under the influence. Adolescents often combine shrooms with alcohol and other drugs, thereby heightening the psychological and physical risks.

The amounts of psilocybin and psilocin contained in any given magic mushroom are unknown, and mushrooms vary greatly in terms of their psychoactive contents.  This means that it is difficult to tell the length, intensity, and type of “trip” someone will experience.

Consuming mushrooms can result in a mild trip, with feelings of relaxation or drowsiness, to a frightening experience marked by hallucinations, delusions, and panic. In some cases, magic mushrooms have even been known to cause seizures. 

Physical Effects and Risks

Physical effects of psilocybin mushrooms include:

• Dilated pupils
• Drowsiness
• Headaches
• There is an increase in heart rate, blood pressure, and temperature.
• Lack of coordination
• Muscle weakness
• Nausea
• Yawning

Given the resemblance of magic mushrooms to poisonous mushrooms, the use of these drugs also carries the potential risk of poisoning. Mushroom poisoning can cause severe illness, organ damage, and even death.

Contamination of magic mushroom products is also common. Pharm Chem Street Drug Laboratory analyzed an older study that included 886 samples purported to be psilocybin mushrooms.

Only 252 (28%) were actually hallucinogenic, while 275 (31%) were regular store-bought mushrooms laced with LSD or phencyclidine (PCP), and 328 (37%) contained no drug at all. 

Mental Effects and Risks

Mental effects of mushrooms are:

• The perception of time, place, and reality is distorted.
• Euphoria
• Hallucinations (visual or auditory)
• Having introspective (spiritual) experiences
• Nervousness
• Panic reactions
• Paranoia
• Psychosis

Self-reports suggest that hazardous trips, medical emergencies, and long-term adverse outcomes can occur, particularly at high doses or when combined with other substances.

Long-Term Effects of Shrooms

The long-term, persistent side effects of magic mushrooms require further study. However, reports suggest that long-term personality changes and flashbacks can occur after taking magic mushrooms.

Help for mushroom poisoning

If you suspect that you or someone you care about has consumed a poisonous mushroom, call poison control right away at 800-222-1222. Don’t wait for symptoms to occur. They are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Signs of Shroom Use

Shroom use can cause nausea, nervousness, and paranoia in loved ones. In the case of drug use, it’s always important to pay attention to any changes in sleep and eating patterns, as well as shifts in mood, personality, and social activities.

There are rare but potential long-term effects of hallucinogens, including disorganized thinking, mood changes, paranoia, and perceptual disturbances.

Hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD) occurs when a person experiences hallucinations or visual disturbances long after using a hallucinogenic drug.

People often mistake these “flashbacks” for neurologic conditions. Other hallucinogen effects your loved one may experience include:

• Amnesia
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Difficulty breathing
• Hallucinations
• Inability to move
• There is a rise in blood pressure, heart rate, and/or body temperature.
• Loss of coordination
• Mood swings
• Numbness
• Panic
• Psychotic symptoms
• Seizures
• Speech difficulties
• Suicidal thoughts or attempts

If your loved one is taking shrooms, they might display unusual behavior due to altered perceptions or impaired judgment, such as jumping out of a window or other dangerous actions.

If the mushrooms were contaminated or mixed with other drugs, they may show signs of poisoning, including tachycardia (heart beating too fast), hypertension (high blood pressure), hyperthermia (body tissue becomes too hot), nausea, or vomiting.16

Magic mushrooms: tolerance, dependence, and withdrawal

Like most drugs, the more you use shrooms, the more tolerance you develop. Tolerance also develops quickly with regular use, meaning a person will need more of the drug to achieve the same effect.

Developing a tolerance can be especially risky with shrooms because consuming a large amount can result in overdose symptoms that, while not fatal, can include:

• Agitation
• Vomiting
• Diarrhea
• Muscle weakness
• Panic or paranoia
• Psychosis
• Seizures

How Long Does Psilocybin Stay in Your System?

The short-term effects of magic mushrooms typically wear off in 6 to 12 hours.4 But people can experience long-term changes in personality and flashbacks long after taking the drug.

Psilocybin has an average half-life of one to two hours, and it typically takes five to six half-lives for a substance to leave your system.

Employers typically do not test for psilocybin in urine screenings, but they can order specific tests to check for it. Shrooms, like many other drugs, can remain in hair follicles for up to 90 days. 17

Addiction

Psilocybin is not generally considered addictive, nor does it tend to lead to compulsive use. Plus, people can build a tolerance to psilocybin fairly quickly, making it difficult to have any effect after several days of repeated use.

Withdrawal

While people rarely report physical symptoms of withdrawal when they stop using the drug, some experience psychological effects, which may include depression.

How to Get Help for Magic Mushroom Misuse

If you suspect a loved one is experimenting with or regularly using shrooms in problematic ways, consider having a firm yet loving conversation with them about the risks of psychedelics—especially when combined with alcohol or other drugs. In addition, emphasize that you are there to help and support them.

If you have been misusing mushrooms, there are treatments available that can help. Talk to your doctor or mental health professional about the best strategies for you. 

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and motivational enhancement therapy (MET) are two common psychotherapy recommendations.

CBT focuses on helping people change thought and behavior patterns that contribute to substance use, while MET works to improve people’s motivation to change. Support groups and lifestyle changes can also be essential in long-term recovery.