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Increased amygdala responses after psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression

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Re: Increased amygdala responses after psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression

#91

Post by heavenlyblue »

tzakrajs wrote: post #53
heavenlyblue wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can abuse mushrooms if you take them in lower dosages. This keeps the antidepressant effect, but doesn't allow you to trip. I had done this - nothing bad happened to me, but not suggesting to try this at home. The point still stands though: please don't misinform people around you since that just reinforces the negative agenda around theses substances.

I noticed no effect from microdosing mushrooms (0.5g per day for a few days) but I don't suffer from depression. How long did microdosing take to make a meaningful effect?

I have noticed being more emotional in general (ups and higher, downs are lower).

But in my case I would be dosing 0.5g several times a day over the course of three days; knowing that the effect keeps for around 3 hours at +1H.

On the other hand at that point of time I did suffer from depression and they would kick me out of the relatively low-peak baseline.

I have repeated this a few times.

Re: Increased amygdala responses after psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression

#92

Post by heavenlyblue »

tzakrajs wrote: post #53
heavenlyblue wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can abuse mushrooms if you take them in lower dosages. This keeps the antidepressant effect, but doesn't allow you to trip. I had done this - nothing bad happened to me, but not suggesting to try this at home. The point still stands though: please don't misinform people around you since that just reinforces the negative agenda around theses substances.

I noticed no effect from microdosing mushrooms (0.5g per day for a few days) but I don't suffer from depression. How long did microdosing take to make a meaningful effect?

By the way, certain combinations tend to highlight the fact that you have indeed dosed and it’s not placebo: try making a coffee with the same 0.5g dosage and you’d see that the stimulating effect of the coffee is way more expressed at +1H.

Re: Increased amygdala responses after psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression

#93

Post by tpm »

mabbo wrote: post #81
tpm wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For psilocybin it looks like the more powerful experience means more pronounced and longer lasting therapeutic effect: "Reductions in depressive symptoms at 5 weeks were predicted by the quality of the acute psychedelic experience." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29119217 And there are more and more studies about the mechanism of psychedelics such ad psilocybin and LSD coming out, essentially telling the same st…

That's correlation, not causation . What if the more intense experience comes from the same root cause as the more pronounced effect (ie: maybe some people are just wired differently and it has multiple effects?) More study is needed before we go off saying that the psychedelic experience is the cause of the improvement, in my view.

Yes, my comment is based on reading essentially all the studies that came out during last few years (since about 2008). I am pretty sure there is a causal relationship, but to prove it is a different task (and one that is not strictly needed for medical approval).

Re: Increased amygdala responses after psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression

#94

Post by ghostbrainalpha »

blurbleblurble wrote: post #50
Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if the trip was necessary for effective treatment?

To some degree, it absolutely is. At the very least, your reality needs to shift. That's the whole idea of healing depression... there are things in your reality that need shifting. I'm also sure that psilocybin isn't the only molecule involved. And I'm also sure that if someone isn't ready to take active ownership of their mental health into taking psilocybin could be just as moot as any other substance. Healing is…

You might be right. I think that the "trip" might be necessary, is a solid theory.

But there were many people who thought the same things as you (that psycho activity was necessary) about the positive effects of marijuana. And it turned out that CBD (the non trip version of marijuana) had the same pain relief benefits for a lot of people without the high.

Re: Increased amygdala responses after psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression

#95

Post by jrnichols »

gt_ wrote: post #37

Despite being intensely skeptical of anything veering towards association as causation, I have always insisted that a psilocybin trip when I was 20 years old was overwhelming responsible for a series of achievements and positive changes in my life in the years following. My lack of words or explanation for this has left me embarrassed to talk about it. Seeing these studies is bringing up a lot of dormant curiosity.

My anecdotal and totally non scientific experience about 6 months ago with psilocybin is similar to yours, i suspect. A positive trip completely changed my outlook on.. well, everything. It's almost as if I see everything in a different light. Instead of being pessimistic and negative about things (by things, I mean pretty much everything under the sun) I just feel hopeful and positive and thankful instead. I really cannot find enough words to describe how much better I have been feeling. How long will it last? I don't know. While it lasts, I have at least been dealing with things better.

It really is hard to explain. But I think you might know how I feel.

Re: Increased amygdala responses after psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression

#96

Post by WalterGR »

theronic wrote: post #75
krylon wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After the first time I took LSD, I, too, noticed an elevated mood for several weeks afterwards. I was not depressed at the time - I might have been a little down - but my mood was better - things that used to annoy me now annoyed me much less, while things that used to make me happy made me even happier. Since LSD and Psilocybin are so similar in their effects, I would not be surprised if the mechanism turns out to b…

The problem with acid is that you believe everything you think, so be careful what you think :) Aside from LSD's longer duration[^1] and increased potency[^2] acid also has a dopaminergic action, whereas psilocin[^3] is primarily a serotonergic drug. It is the dopaminergic action that can result in the obsessive quality or "looping" experience of LSD trips. When you eat magic mushrooms, you are essentially taking you…

It is the dopaminergic action that can result in the obsessive quality or "looping" experience of LSD trips.

Where can I learn more about that?

Re: Increased amygdala responses after psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression

#97

Post by WalterSear »

tpm wrote: post #69
WalterSear wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SSRIs are used to treat a different class of depression.

Actually no, the inclusion criteria for this study were major (unipolar) depression and no improvement despite two courses of antidepressants (6 weeks minimum each), I think this is exactly what SSRI are used for.

Actually no.

SSRIs, and their more recent variants, would almost invariably comprise that first and second courses of treatments.

Re: Increased amygdala responses after psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression

#98

Post by tpm »

WalterSear wrote: post #97
tpm wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually no, the inclusion criteria for this study were major (unipolar) depression and no improvement despite two courses of antidepressants (6 weeks minimum each), I think this is exactly what SSRI are used for.

Actually no. SSRIs, and their more recent variants, would almost invariably comprise that first and second courses of treatments.

Which is exactly what I'm talking about, against your original claim that "SSRIs are used to treat a different class of depression" sorry if this wasn't clear enough from my post, English is not my first language.

Re: Increased amygdala responses after psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression

#99

Post by retox »

theronic wrote: post #75
krylon wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After the first time I took LSD, I, too, noticed an elevated mood for several weeks afterwards. I was not depressed at the time - I might have been a little down - but my mood was better - things that used to annoy me now annoyed me much less, while things that used to make me happy made me even happier. Since LSD and Psilocybin are so similar in their effects, I would not be surprised if the mechanism turns out to b…

The problem with acid is that you believe everything you think, so be careful what you think :) Aside from LSD's longer duration[^1] and increased potency[^2] acid also has a dopaminergic action, whereas psilocin[^3] is primarily a serotonergic drug. It is the dopaminergic action that can result in the obsessive quality or "looping" experience of LSD trips. When you eat magic mushrooms, you are essentially taking you…

I believe the name LSD-25 comes from the active form we know today being the 25th incarnation of whatever substance it was that Hoffman et al were trying to create.

Re: Increased amygdala responses after psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression

#100

Post by petre »

hippich wrote: post #79
naasking wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The issue is abuse potential. Most of these drugs can be used to "trip," or have a psychedelic experience, meaning it would likely be made illegal very quickly. But why is tripping considered abuse? Particularly in cases where overdosing is difficult or impossible (like with marijuana). These requirements just seem asinine.

To all replied here with "politics" as a reason. How do you explain the fact there are harsh policies in the ex-USSR countries, where no racism existed, no hippies, no minorities to put in jail, etc?

The communist regimes just banned anything which didn't adhere to the new man utopian concept. Blue jeans, males with long hair, narcotics, being gay, being unemployed etc. Alcohol wasn't banned for some reason, although Gorbatchev tried to limit alcohol use and failed.

No racism? In the early USSR, racism was state policy, with people being deported to Siberia or scattered around the USSR in order to dillute their culture. Ukraine was also subjected to genocide through famine, which killed 7-10M people.

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