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Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

#31

Post by lifeisstillgood »

abgr-y wrote: post #28

I don't believe drugs whether prescribed or recreational can cure Mental disorders. yes they may alleviate the symptoms but they don't really work on the root cause which are basically ones mental tendencies, thought patterns or habits acquired over a period of time. here[0] is a different take on what depression is and gives a high level road map to come out of it, for more details this [1] is a book by the same aut…

Perhaps, but it is a lot easier to take long term action on your mental tendencies if you don't feel the blackness closing in every second.

We have a long century ahead of us to pull out of the mental health slump we are seeing (similar perhaps to the physical health slumps following industrialisation). We will need many tools in the kit.

Re: Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

#32

Post by pope_meat »

ceilingcorner wrote: post #27
Uberphallus wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The drug has dangers, but they seem small compared to those of alcohol, even if largely orthogonal. It got banned because it wasn't understood in the best case, to curb the counterculture movement from the 60s in the worst, but it's always been hard to justify it with medical reasons; it's been just tagged along with cocaine or heroin and made bad by association.

But if there hasn’t been significant medical research, how do we know there are no long-term dangers?

Why, the next best thing after significant medical research, anecdotal research!

So far so good.

Re: Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

#33

Post by ceilingcorner »

pope_meat wrote: post #32
ceilingcorner wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But if there hasn’t been significant medical research, how do we know there are no long-term dangers?

Why, the next best thing after significant medical research, anecdotal research! So far so good.

So far in this topic, it’s been research of the “my friend said” kind. Which is even less reliable than direct anecdotal research.

Re: Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

#34

Post by refurb »

ButtSpark69 wrote: post #20
Gatsky wrote: post #15

The study was just published in the most prestigious medical journal in the world [1]. Whatever you think of the study, this is rather significant. If you told me even 2 years ago there would be a randomised trial of magic mushrooms in NEJM, I would not have believed it for even a second. One point not to miss is that they screened 1000 patients to come up with the study population of 59. Nevertheless, I consider the…

"If you told me even 2 years ago there would be a randomised trial of magic mushrooms in NEJM, I would not have believed it for even a second." In a lot of ways, that's completely depressing for how slowly we've come as a species.

Wait until you learn some history about how regressed!

Re: Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

#35

Post by jack_riminton »

abgr-y wrote: post #28

I don't believe drugs whether prescribed or recreational can cure Mental disorders. yes they may alleviate the symptoms but they don't really work on the root cause which are basically ones mental tendencies, thought patterns or habits acquired over a period of time. here[0] is a different take on what depression is and gives a high level road map to come out of it, for more details this [1] is a book by the same aut…

But that’s exactly what psychedelics do, they rewire the brain. In neuroscience terms they disrupt the default mode network. In other words they open your mind up and allow it to break free of the tendencies, thought patterns and habits.

This is why they’re more akin to therapy than recreational drugs

Re: Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

#36

Post by arcticbull »

simion314 wrote: post #24
simonswords82 wrote: post #7

I have a friend who has experienced magic mushrooms recreationally about half a dozen times in her 20s. After each trip she reported feeling clear headed and more mindful - she described it as though her mind's harddrive had been defragmented. Fast forward 10 years and that same friend felt low during lockdown over the past 12 months. After reading up online she decided to try microdosing mushrooms rather than the ma…

I have zero experience with drugs, so I am wondering if there is a sugar/cigarette industry that put a lot of money into promoting it's products, then what will be different when drugs get legalized? Won't we repeat the history where companies make billions from this products, put them into ads to spread the use and addict people, suppress research into bad side effects etc,. Personally I think there are some good ap…

Sure, for weed maybe.

But psychedelics are very different. They're really, genuinely not addictive -- probably because they're not "fun." In fact, they're exhausting. You may feel a lot better after, the experience may be fascinating, but you're in absolutely no hurry to do it again. The whole thing lasts a few hours, but literally feels like months, with numerous epochs along the way.

It's not like the kind of hollow calories of a bag of Cheetos, it's more like a long, difficult workout. That's hard to productize in that way.

Re: Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

#37

Post by 8192kjshad09- »

satellite2 wrote: post #4

It seems the design of this study is questionable. Since they couldn't blind the psylocybin group from the effect, they gave 1mg daily to the SSRI group. Basically it's a study that compares psylocybin with SSRI + psylocybin micro dosing. They claim that the micro dose don't have an effect, but there is not a large body of evidence to support that claim.

Wouldn't the study design under exaggerate the effect of psilocybin, if anything?

Re: Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

#38

Post by beambot »

abgr-y wrote: post #28

I don't believe drugs whether prescribed or recreational can cure Mental disorders. yes they may alleviate the symptoms but they don't really work on the root cause which are basically ones mental tendencies, thought patterns or habits acquired over a period of time. here[0] is a different take on what depression is and gives a high level road map to come out of it, for more details this [1] is a book by the same aut…

> I don't believe...

The good news is that studies such as this produce empirical, scientific evidence that supercedes anecdotes and individuals' belief patterns -- whether they're negative or skeptical (as yours) or hyper-positive cure-alls (eg from psychonauts)

Re: Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

#40

Post by pengaru »

ceilingcorner wrote: post #9

I don’t want to live in a world where the solution to depression (caused by governments, politicians, or general existence in the modern capitalist world) is a drug. Not a good idea. Instead, figure out why depression has increased so dramatically in the last ~century and address that.

I don't want to live in a world where how you want the world to look affects my freedom to eat certain foods.
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