The Journal of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry has published the case of a 30-year-old man who was hospitalized after injecting a “tea” he had made with hallucinogenic mushrooms and the fungus had started to grow in his veins. In the report, the researchers state that the subject was seeking to self-medicate for opioid dependence and depression.
The family reported that they had recently stopped taking prescription medications for bipolar type I disorder . It was during this period that he began researching the therapeutic effects of microdosing LSD and psilocybin, a naturally occurring psychedelic produced by more than 200 species of mushrooms.
The subject obtained the magic mushrooms and prepared what he called a “mushroom tea” by pouring boiling water over the mushroom, which contains the water-soluble psilocybin. Instead of drinking it, however, he prepared an injection. Neither short nor lazy he injected the concoction directly into his veins.
After the injection, he began to develop a number of problems. When his family discovered him days later, he had jaundice, nausea, diarrhea, extreme confusion, and was vomiting blood. His organs had begun to fail, including his kidneys and lungs, and he had suffered acute liver injury. His heart rate was through the roof and he was suffering from septic shock.
Once in the ICU, the doctors took culture samples of his blood, discovering that “the species of fungus that he had injected was now growing in his blood.”
“It is not clear whether active intravascular infection with a psychoactive fungus such as Psilocybe cubensis can cause persistent psychoactive effects as seen with ingestion of the same species, which could further contribute to changes in perception and cognition,” write the authors.
Referencia: A “trip” to the ICU: intravenous injection of psilocybin. Nicholas .Giancola Clayton J Korson B Jason P. Caplan Curtis A. McKnight Journal of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaclp.2020.12.012
