Earlier quoted context omitted.
Psychedelic psychotherapy was left as a casualty to the war on drugs.
? The war on drugs didn't prevent a massive rise in opioid medication
What does that have to do with psychedelic psychotherapy?
First of its kind study pits psilocybin against a common antidepressant
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Re: First of its kind study pits psilocybin against a common antidepressant
#2225 is a pretty fat dose. Seems excessive for a scientific study... I always wonder how these people running the studies choose their doses. Do we want the participants to have a smooth/pleasant trip? Or have an white knuckle, ego-obliterating flight through space? This reminds me of another study I read where participants were given 100+mg doses of liquid ketamine straight to the dome. The participants frequently k-h…
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Re: First of its kind study pits psilocybin against a common antidepressant
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you explain why for those of us unfamiliar?
Well it's not actually a placebo to start with.
There is no way to placebo control a psychedelic really, as that effect is easily discerned, even in a closed label trial. Therefore, a comparison protocol is used instead, which is anyway superior to pure placebo control.
A different psychedelic, which is not expected to have an antidepressant effect, or a low, psychoactive but not antidepressant dose. Or known non-psychedelic antidepressants which have been placebo tested.
Re: First of its kind study pits psilocybin against a common antidepressant
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Psychedelic psychotherapy was left as a casualty to the war on drugs.
? The war on drugs didn't prevent a massive rise in opioid medication
Opioid medication isn't psychedelic psychotherapy, nor has it ever had strong associations with anti-establishment movements.
Re: First of its kind study pits psilocybin against a common antidepressant
#25> While members of the psychedelic cohort received 25 milligrams of psilocybin during the sessions, considered a medium-to-heavy dose of the drug, those in the antidepressant group received 1 milligram. Such a low dose is typically provided in psychedelic studies in lieu of a placebo Doesn't seem like well-designed study.
Well, true, but it seems hard to design such a study comparing psychedelics and common antidepressants.
Because a antidepressant works pretty much on its own. But when you treat with psychedelics, you have to have a very professional therapist guiding the patient, otherwise you will get all kinds of effects. (So I argue success depends very much on the therapist)
And a patient will notice, whether they just get a mushroom trip, or not. So what they did, they gave the control group 1 mg of antidepressant and told them, they are microdosing psilocybin.
Not really ideal, but how to improve?
Re: First of its kind study pits psilocybin against a common antidepressant
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Psychedelic psychotherapy was left as a casualty to the war on drugs.
? The war on drugs didn't prevent a massive rise in opioid medication
The major difference is that opioids had been used for pain treatment in modern medicine decades before the war on drugs, so legal prohibitions on recreational opioids didn’t affect basic research nor the development of new treatments, nor did it affect the legitimacy of opioid treatments in the eyes of the US medical establishment. (perhaps it should have!)
By contrast, psychedelics have not been used in medicine and were/are not considered “legitimate” by the medical establishment. So with legal prohibitions on actually obtaining and administering psychedelics, the War on Drugs actually did hinder psychedelics medical research.
Re: First of its kind study pits psilocybin against a common antidepressant
#27Re: First of its kind study pits psilocybin against a common antidepressant
#28Re: First of its kind study pits psilocybin against a common antidepressant
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Psychedelic psychotherapy was left as a casualty to the war on drugs.
? The war on drugs didn't prevent a massive rise in opioid medication
You’re correct and parent is correct. War on Drugs started as a combined anti-black anti-counterculture initiative in response to Vietnam War. Psychedelics were threatening the power structure. It was never really about drugs.
Re: First of its kind study pits psilocybin against a common antidepressant
#3025 is a pretty fat dose. Seems excessive for a scientific study... I always wonder how these people running the studies choose their doses. Do we want the participants to have a smooth/pleasant trip? Or have an white knuckle, ego-obliterating flight through space? This reminds me of another study I read where participants were given 100+mg doses of liquid ketamine straight to the dome. The participants frequently k-h…
25 is as they say 'medium-to-heavy dose'. It's not as excessively high as you make it sound and it isn't quite 'an white knuckle, ego-obliterating flight through space'
It's definitely a 'proper trip' but you are making it seem like a DMT breakthrough amount.