A silent pandemic looms large in the country. And the world.
More than 60 million Indians are affected by mental disorders. A 57% depression rate among young people. 1 in 4 persons – globally – suffering from a mental illness at some point in their lives. And the leading cause of death among 15-29 year-olds around the world, particularly those from lower-income brackets? Suicide.
One neuroscientist’s pathbreaking research is decoding the heart, or rather the brain, of the matter.
Meet Vidita Vaidya, Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Biological Sciences at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. Vaidya’s experiments on mice across two decades and more have unraveled the circuitry of the mind that controls our emotions. Any glitches, thanks to stressful episodes such as childhood trauma, can trigger anxiety, fear, despair – common markers of mental distress – even later in life.
Winner of the coveted Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in 2015, as well as the Infosys Prize in Life Sciences in 2022, Vaidya’s work drills deep into these mental states – particularly the role played by serotonin. The happy hormone, mood stabilizer, gut molecule. Which affects functions such as memory and sexual appetite, sleep and hunger. It has always been known that serotonin plays a role in shaping response to trauma. Vaidya discovered not only how – but also that psychedelics can wildly improve the outcome.
Hallucinogens have long been part of spirituality, religions, rituals. Consider Algeria’s “mushroom man” – a mural dating some 7000 years old, likely the first recorded use of psychedelics. These drugs were first banned from the mainstream during colonial conquests – and then again went underground in the 1960s due to the excesses of Timothy Leary, a psychologist who was fired from Harvard University, arrested 36 times, and allegedly described by US President Richard Nixon as “the most dangerous man in America.”
Today in the West, psychedelics have gone from taboo to trend – they’re back on the scientific radar including at prestigious institutions like Johns Hopkins University – for the role they can play in revolutionising psychiatry. Magic mushrooms for stress relief. Ayahuasca for PTSD. Cannabis to combat anxiety. Australia became the first country in 2023 to legalise psychedelics for mental health treatment. Several states in the USA are en route to do the same.
And in India – the land of the soma, the source of much bliss, poetic inspiration, and even immortality in ancient texts – Vaidya is leading the charge. She’s pushing for better infrastructure. More resources. To create therapies rooted in local contexts. To understand and regulate. To use drugs sensitively, respectfully, ethically. Just as Shamans did for millennia.
A creative cure to the silent pandemic? At SYNAPSE, Vidita Vaidya will unlock the pathways to emotions. The mood molecule’s link with psychoactive drugs. The new science – and ‘magic’ mixes – healing trauma and mental disorders. And how, in a country still witnessing poverty and social disadvantages, psychedelic interventions could be timely life-savers.
