by Rusty Scribes
It has been estimated that close to 10% of American kids between the ages of 3 and 17 have an official ADHD diagnosis. Of these, the majority are boys. Many blame these high numbers on diagnostic inflation, the widening of the definition to include more mild or ambiguous symptoms, but let’s face it. Nowadays, if your kid fidgets or has trouble keeping quiet during Mr. Mape’s uninspiring science presentation you will probably get a call from the school and get the question “Does Bobby have an ADHD diagnosis?” You then take Bobby to his pediatrician who has heard it all before and before you know it you are learning to adjust his dose of Ritalin, Adderall or Concerta. Your kid is now in that 10% minority.
The sales pitch goes something like this. “Your child will be able to live up to his full potential and we’ve seen these medications work wonders with other kids.” Of course, the truth is a bit more complex. Although there may be some real concern for your child, they are really just wanting to make their own lives easier. An active child requires more energy than a passive one. Other parents could be selfishly complaining about Bobby to the school and the administration simply wants to appease them. After all is said and done, your kid is going to end up on drugs that contain amphetamine or methylphenidate. Oh, but don’t worry. These drugs have the “paradoxical” effect of calming your child. Side effects downplayed by the pharmaceutical industry include anxiety, depression, appetite suppression and even growth stunting. Your little Bobby who once had eyes full of curiosity and wonder now walks around like an extra on the Night of the Living Dead set.
There may be change on the horizon though. A neuroscientist from Oakland, California says we’re doing it all backwards. “We are simply medicating the wrong part of the population and medicating them for the wrong reasons,” declared Dr. Alfredo Pereira. “It would be so much wiser to get the 10% off the ADHD meds and put the other 90% on low dose, synthetic psilocybin, the mind altering component of magic mushrooms.”
According to Dr. Pereira, students diagnosed with ADD or ADHD are often the most creative in the class. “ It’s criminal that a parent with perhaps a passive, insular child can influence school staff with a complaint about an active child when it’s the environment and other students that need to change and adapt,” he said.
He spent several years designing a study and getting the approval of Institutional Review Boards as well as cooperation from the parents of kids diagnosed with ADHD and those who weren’t. His goal was to recruit 20 students with confirmed diagnoses of ADHD and 180 that weren’t. After a long approval process, and with the help of consultants, he was able to open a private high school in Oakland near the Piedmont border to conduct his research.
“We worried it might be difficult to find 180 families brave enough to allow their kids to be served psilocybin every morning but when we promised the parents that they too could get the same dose, it didn’t take long to fill the openings,” he explained. “We’ve now had two years to study student interaction and academic achievement in both student populations.”
The Dragonfly Report arranged an interview with Dr. Pereira at the school where the study took place. We discussed the lessons learned and implications for the future.
The Dragonfly Report: How did you come up with the name Lycée Champignon Magique for your school? Why use French?
Dr. Pereira: Good question. If we called it Magic Mushroom High, we would have received unwanted visitors and unnecessary attention. With a French name, very few people in Oakland would understand it but the name would still reflect the study.
The Dragonfly Report: I think a lot of people would consider giving kids psilocybin to be dangerous and unethical at best. How do you justify that?
Dr. Pereira: I’m sure these are the same people who turn a blind eye to putting 10% of the student population on amphetamine or methylphenidate that turns them into zombies. We used a low, sub-perceptual dose of psilocybin, popularly known as micro-dosing based on the student’s approximate weight. We looked at studies on micro-dosing with adult populations and determined that there was minimal risk and outside review agencies agreed. Towards the end of the study, we reduced the dose until it was completely stopped at the end.
The Dragonfly Report: Could you tell us a little about what you learned in the study? For example, how did the ADHD and non-ADHD students work together?
Dr. Pereira: First of all, we didn’t refer to any of the kids as ADHD students in the study. For the students who were formerly diagnosed with what I think is often a suspect diagnosis, we used the term PDTs or Positive Distracted Thinkers. Big changes were noted in the 90% that were given very low doses of psilocybin based on previous academic baselines. These students became more curious, empathetic to their classmates and their critical thinking skills were off the charts. In collaboration projects, the PDTs tended to take a leadership role but the “90 percenters” as we called them, made excellent contributions. In a regular school, the PDTs may have been sidelined as they were moving too fast for their teachers and classmates. At Lycée Champignon Magique the 90 percenters seemed to really appreciate the PDTs. I want to make it clear that this was a preliminary study and the first of its kind. There were a lot of variables such as curriculum and the students’ previous academic background. Clearly, future research is indicated.
The Dragonfly Report: Aren’t you concerned about the side effects of psilocybin, especially with children?
Dr. Pereira: The short answer is yes. We’re not trying to say this is a long term solution and that non-PDTs should be on low dose psilocybin for life. The big lesson from this study is that there are other solutions. Rather than castrating the minds of active kids with amphetamine and methylphenidate, why not micro-dose the 90%? Who gets to decide and why? One could make a strong argument that a low dose of psilocybin is way more benign than Ritalin. Oh yeah, and don’t forget psilocybin which is associated with hallucinations and tripping at high doses has the “paradoxical” effect of making one more empathetic and grounded in a micro-dose.
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