Puk hopes psychedelic research will improve anorexia treatment

A new research project in Denmark will test psilocybin as a treatment for anorexia, and 20-year-old Puk Hoppe Søe hopes it could lead to better care. DR reports that Søe, who says she is now recovered after years with the eating disorder, believes there is a strong need for alternative treatments.

Søe became seriously ill with anorexia at 11. She says her daily life revolved around burning as much energy as possible and eating as little as possible. She does not want to disclose how little she weighed at her worst, but her mother, Anne Dorte Hoppe Søe, says her daughter became so thin that her heart could only beat at half strength, leaving her fingers and toes blue.

Psychiatry services in Region Zealand are starting a research project this month in which a group of people with anorexia will receive psilocybin, a psychedelic substance found in several species of mushroom. The aim is to help patients enter a different mental state and gain new insights and perspectives on themselves.

Søe says her own treatment initially focused on being weighed, eating and gaining weight. If patients did not eat, she says, they could lose the chance to go for a walk or take part in shared activities on the ward. They would then have to make up the missed food later. She describes this approach as symptom treatment and says she is unsure how much talk therapy helped while she was so ill.

She believes small insights she gained during her recovery ultimately helped her. She also kept diary notes, which led to her first book, published when she was 15. She is now finishing a second book about anorexia, combining her personal account with scientific theories about the disorder and how it can develop. It is due to be published in December.

After the new year, Søe plans to begin medical studies in Odense. She hopes to specialise in psychiatry and use her experiences to help develop more individual approaches to mental illness treatment.