Dying patients in the US have been benefitting from dosages of a drug found in psychedelic magic mushrooms.

The ingredient, used to ease end-of-life anxiety, is psilocybin, the active ingredient in the mushrooms, which are illegal.

Terminally ill cancer patients have been found to have gained relief from the guided "trip" on psilocybin.

One to three months after taking psilocybin, patients reported feeling less anxious after trials conducted at UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California.

Patients said their so-called trip gave them a new perspective on their illness and helped the struggle against anxiety.

The terminally ill cancer patients said the hallucinogenic drug had improved their overall mood and had lifted depression.

Psychiatrists and psychologists began exploring the effects of hallucinogens on dying patients in the 1950s, but the research was stopped abruptly when psilocybin, LSD, and other mind-altering drugs were made illegal in the 1970s.

The Archives of General Psychiatry has published the new findings of the medical team under the heading: "Can psychedelic drugs treat depression?"