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Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

bbc.co.uk

61–70 of 324 posts

Re: Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

#61
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.

I agree wholeheartedly, Mister ButtSpark69. For all our civilization's progress, we still have so far to go.

Re: Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

#62
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…

Due to the stigma of psychedelics, there has been a long gap in research, which may have started with 1962 "Good Friday Experiment" > Almost all of the members of the experimental group reported experiencing profound religious experiences, providing empirical support for the notion that psychedelic drugs can facilitate religious experiences. One of the participants in the experiment was religious scholar Huston Smith…

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Re: Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely, however it's also disingenuous to say that we have no idea what the long term consequences of shrooms are just because there hasn't been a formal study recently. There's tons of people doing it regularly - for millennia actually, studies from the before-times and a large incentive by the mainstream anti-drug folks to dramatize any adverse consequences. Should there be studies? Sure. Are we pretty sure it'…

The way to get people to agree with legalization is to follow rigorous medical study procedures, not handwave about it being obviously fine. For the record I think they should be legalized.

I tend to believe that unless proven otherwise, substances should be legal. The burden of proof IMO is on the folks who want to restrain behavior.

[edit] I don't think that producing a study that shows a lack of harm is going to change anyone's mind. The prohibition is puritanical and ideological, no amount of evidence is going to change that. I think if this was based on a genuine fear, the study would have preceded the prohibition. This feels more like running ourselves in circles to collect evidence, Lucy and the football style.

We already know the LD-50 of mushrooms is 17kg of fresh mushroom for an average size human lol.

Re: Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

#64
post #59

Here in Europe someone gave politicians the idea that they could control a virus. So now we have arbitrary sets of restrictions applied when case numbers of coronavirus go up. If case numbers go down again, they get relaxed. If they go up, add more restrictions are added until they go down. The restrictions are follow the case numbers, but we have convinced ourselves it is the other way around. It's a modern day witc…

Measures to contain COVID-19 exist globally and if you have great cosmic insight into the fact that they don't work, perhaps you could share that instead of sarcasm without any basis.

Re: Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

#65

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 know a lot of people whose minds were ruined by psychedelics. It’s something you will see when you spend time in those communities. It doesn’t happen to everyone, but it’s common.

Most likely because they have done normal or high doses too frequently.

Re: Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

#66
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…

Friend was treated for "mental disorder". She was fine, except food allergy. If she followed this "bro science", she would be dependent on God knows what, with real mental problems.

Re: Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

#67

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…

Reminds me of the documentary about Addreal and it's prevalence in tech and other high-functioning people. It quickly mentioned (anonymously) a SV tech person that switched to microdosing mushrooms rather than Addreal, and how that made everything better for her (but the documentary cut short on following up her case).

Re: Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

#68
post #26

On the one hand, HN is terrified of brain-computer interfaces manipulating our brains and emotions, on the other hand, they're totally psyched about using mushrooms to do the same thing.

If you're going to be this reductive about things, you might as well say every antidepressant and apparently also psilocybin does the exact same thing. Of course, being that reductive isn't useful and ignores a lot of the nuance that actually exists around the subject. Much like what you're saying.

Re: Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way to get people to agree with legalization is to follow rigorous medical study procedures, not handwave about it being obviously fine. For the record I think they should be legalized.

I tend to believe that unless proven otherwise, substances should be legal. The burden of proof IMO is on the folks who want to restrain behavior. [edit] I don't think that producing a study that shows a lack of harm is going to change anyone's mind. The prohibition is puritanical and ideological, no amount of evidence is going to change that. I think if this was based on a genuine fear, the study would have preceded…

I agree but I’m talking tactically. Legalization requires convincing people that don’t think the same way, and the best method for doing that is by rigorous medical study.

The prohibition is puritanical and ideological, no amount of evidence is going to change that

Your insistence that this is the case is itself ideological.

Re: Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

#70
Judging by studies on long term use of other mind-altering drugs, I would expect psilocybin to similarly cause decline in cognitive abilities after prolonged use.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), I could not find studies on effect of specifically psilocybin on cognitive abilities.

And please, don't bring up EmoIQ and other non-reasoning related stuff. This is not what the concern is about.

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