Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Psychedelics could heal brain cells in people suffering from depression: study

independent.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 240 posts

Re: Psychedelics could heal brain cells in people suffering from depression: study

#31

Post by s-shellfish »

wincy wrote: post #15

I’m really worried about the subset of the population with preexisting mental disorders such as manic depressive disorder, schizophrenia, and depression who will suffer a psychotic break from the use of these substances. Maybe I’m wrong, but from what I’ve heard and read it seems like there’s no way to know what will happen until you try it. A certain percentage of the population goes to hell in the most literal sens…

> I’m really worried about the subset of the population with preexisting mental disorders such as manic depressive disorder, schizophrenia, and depression who will suffer a psychotic break from the use of these substances.

I honestly don't think we have the capacity to test existing psychiatric medication to the extent that we can provably demonstrate that over the long term, psychiatric medication + negligence (or simply, variance - controlled lab conditions versus real world) in mental health care is not a direct cause (more nicely, a contributory factor) of psychotic breaks for patients.

So yes, it's a risk, but it's not one that doesn't currently exist with what we do now.

Re: Psychedelics could heal brain cells in people suffering from depression: study

#32

Post by Alex3917 »

Rumudiez wrote: post #21
Alex3917 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> people get hurt exercising all the time. Olympic weightlifting is actually one of the safest sports. But most people who lift are doing body building or more sport-specific training, which is where you see most of the injuries.

Olympic athletes are professionals. Anecdotally, my “yoked” coworkers frequently hurt themselves. Out of twenty people on my team, two hurt their backs so badly in the last month that they can’t sit or stand for more than an hour or two, among other minor injuries. Meanwhile, I commute by motorcycle exclusively five days a week and have never missed work due to or come to work with an injury. The safeness of any give…

> Olympic athletes are professionals.

They're actually required to be amateurs, but otherwise yeah. :-)

Re: Psychedelics could heal brain cells in people suffering from depression: study

#33

Post by collyw »

Sir_Substance wrote: post #13
User23 wrote: post #2

Or one could lift weights, which is even safer and has many positive ancillary effects. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/article-abst...

It also takes a lot of commitment and time that not everyone has, and requires you to by physically capable of lifting weights which not everyone is. On a more nuanced note, different things work for different people, and gyms aren't the optimal mental healing environment for everyone. If you're gonna arrange everyone on a hypothetical comfort spectrum between gym and library, it seems reasonable that some people wou…

Gyms are the most boring place to get exercise. Go out and enjoy nature, I am sure that will double the benefits of getting exercise if its in order to treat depression.

Re: Psychedelics could heal brain cells in people suffering from depression: study

#34

Post by alexandercrohde »

wincy wrote: post #15

I’m really worried about the subset of the population with preexisting mental disorders such as manic depressive disorder, schizophrenia, and depression who will suffer a psychotic break from the use of these substances. Maybe I’m wrong, but from what I’ve heard and read it seems like there’s no way to know what will happen until you try it. A certain percentage of the population goes to hell in the most literal sens…

Here's a podcast episode of a guy who tries microdosing http://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/44-shine-on-you-crazy-g...

Re: Psychedelics could heal brain cells in people suffering from depression: study

#35

Post by ttul »

rhcom2 wrote: post #8

An interesting point is that since taking SSRIs LSD and mushrooms have a much more diminished effect on me which anecdotally seems to be common.

The SSRIs cause more circulating seratonin, which means there is less seratonin waiting to be released by the action of the LSD. Your high will be diminished, but also will last longer.

Re: Psychedelics could heal brain cells in people suffering from depression: study

#36

Post by shittyadmin »

jvandyke wrote: post #27

I recommend reading "How to Change Your Mind" by Michael Pollan if you're all interested in the history and details of psychedelics. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36613747-how-to-change-y... Based my reading of that, what these researchers are doing is not prescribing psychedelics to patients with mental disorders and giving the whole "take one time a day with food". What these researchers are finding is that t…

Minor correction, the name is Michael Pollan

If you'd like an introduction to his work I'd recommend his post on planting the opium poppy, I really enjoyed it.

https://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/opium-made-easy/

Re: Psychedelics could heal brain cells in people suffering from depression: study

#37

Post by foobaw »

Having controlled psychedelics could be safer - especially in the raving community where too often deaths occur from dangerously mixed and pressed substances.

There has to be a more comprehensive study done on its neurotoxicity. Or more studies in general. But who will pay for it and why?

Re: Psychedelics could heal brain cells in people suffering from depression: study

#38

Post by mancerayder »

User23 wrote: post #2

Or one could lift weights, which is even safer and has many positive ancillary effects. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/article-abst...

First, why 'or'?

Second, anyone who thinks psychedelics are a shortcut or an easy way to do something obviously haven't experienced them.

Re: Psychedelics could heal brain cells in people suffering from depression: study

#39

Post by cf498 »

wincy wrote: post #15

I’m really worried about the subset of the population with preexisting mental disorders such as manic depressive disorder, schizophrenia, and depression who will suffer a psychotic break from the use of these substances. Maybe I’m wrong, but from what I’ve heard and read it seems like there’s no way to know what will happen until you try it. A certain percentage of the population goes to hell in the most literal sens…

I am not sure about the percentage affected or what the preconditions have to be, or what other measures to detect them are, but personally I never tried psychedelics recreationaly due to their extremely long duration of effect.

I know there is a good argument about setting, mindset and support being the relevant factors, but the possibility of multiple hour horror trips always made me think again. And again. Which in itself is a huge problem for people who get complications because of that fear.

There are some drugs who work similar to an "allergy test". Salvia divinorum for example has an extremely short duration of effect. A few minutes (<10) in comparison to the same amount of hours. With proper supervision the potential to detect people at danger without lasting complications looks extremely promising to me. Sadly I dont think anyone will care for such safety measures as long as the whole benefit of psychedelic drugs is illegal at the moment.

Re: Psychedelics could heal brain cells in people suffering from depression: study

#40

Post by empath75 »

wincy wrote: post #15

I’m really worried about the subset of the population with preexisting mental disorders such as manic depressive disorder, schizophrenia, and depression who will suffer a psychotic break from the use of these substances. Maybe I’m wrong, but from what I’ve heard and read it seems like there’s no way to know what will happen until you try it. A certain percentage of the population goes to hell in the most literal sens…

So you haven't done it, you have no studies to back this idea, but you just assume it's going to be a problem somehow..

So-called "bad trips" can be tremendously beneficial afterwards. They're "bad" because you get into the kind of deep, uncomfortable introspection that most people would want to avoid naturally. You learn things about yourself and the world that you probably wouldn't have wanted to know. That doesn't mean that you're going to go crazy afterwards. A lot of people come out better on the other side.

Post reply on HN