Welcome to What’s Up Docs?, the podcast where doctors and identical twins Chris and Xand van Tulleken untangle the confusion around every aspect of our health and wellbeing.

This week, Chris and Xand meet Dr James Rucker, a consultant psychiatrist at King's College London who is leading the European arm of a global trial of a psychedelic called psilocybin in a study designed to treat people with severe depression for whom other pharmacological treatments have failed.

The use of psychedelics in both traditional medicinal and spiritual ceremonies dates back thousands of years and examples include peyote and ayahuasca from Central and South America, Iboga root from Central Africa and LSD, which is synthesised from a fungus found throughout Europe. As the number of clinical trials involving psychedelics increases, scientists are cautiously optimistic that they may be able to help with a range of conditions from eating disorders and anxiety to depression and addiction.

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Presenters: Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken

At the BBC:

A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4