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Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

#131

Post by hyper_dynamics »

jeromenerf wrote: post #17
internetslave wrote: post #3

I’m going to cluster HN news stories by topic and then write a script to filter the same content out.

French call this kind of repetitive, easy to write and not worth reading articles "marronniers" (literally "chestnut tree"), supposedly because some famous tree was worth an annual subject. In case you need to name your project :) On the other hand, I would prefer to filter out the comments marronniers. You know, the mushroom anecdotes, the quality of the Mac trackpad, ...

Can't say much of the mushrooms, but the Mac trackpad is so good, it made me write this comment ;)

Re: Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

#132

Post by Covzire »

vmception wrote: post #108
vermilingua wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any psychadelics (and I think cannabis as well, but much more rarely) can cause a psychotic break, which can’t always be recovered from. It seems to be more prevalent if there is a family history of psychosis. No source, just anecdata, the circles I run in.

Even with cannabis, states have no FDA that is prepared to do studies and I just wish a basic level of known side effects were listed from the actual FDA which they do for studied and much more harmful drugs, because they were studied When you add all the other scheduled drugs that have no state level recreational framework, then you no studies and you also have a compounded supply chain problem where nobody knows wh…

>nobody can give a real case about “the friend of friend” who went crazy

This is a very good point. I'm not going to suggest that the commonly cited anecdotes are all wrong or misguided, but a lot of well meaning people throw around anecdotes but just like a discussion about flat earthers, everyone knows about them but virtually nobody seems to actually know any personally.

In 2016 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) cited 37,461 people died due to automobile accidents. Those are easily traceable numbers because they create a tremendous amount of paperwork and news articles.

But with psychedelics there is a very odd disconnect between the perception of their danger and the extreme lack of actual medical/scientific evidence that actually gets cited.

Re: Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

#133

Post by collyw »

dTal wrote: post #83
theelous3 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are saying they do work, but only when they are implemented. They are unimplemented when the numbers get low, which causes them to go back up, and has the effect of starting the cycle again.

No, they are saying that lockdowns do nothing and any appearance that they do is backwards causality: "restrictions are follow[sic] the case numbers, but we have convinced ourselves it is the other way around". They're wrong, but that's what they're saying.

I didn't say they do nothing, lockdowns clearly cause massive harm and suffering yet there is no obvious benefit when compared to places that didn't lock down.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-84092-1

Re: Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

#134

Post by elric »

There's been some promising progress on migraine/cluster-headache treatments with psilocybin microdosing. Really happy to see that humanity is slowly starting to realize that blanket bans aren't always the best idea ..

Re: Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

#135

Post by queuep »

fighterpilot wrote: post #117

> In a phase 2, double-blind , randomized, controlled trial It seems like you can't blind the participants in this case? It should be obvious if you're getting the treatment because psilocybin is a hallucinogen, unless they're giving such a small dose that it reliably doesn't cause any hallucinations? This is important because most (70-80%) of the effect of existing anti-depressants is known to be placebo, and there'…

I'm not an expert in this, but if they gave 25mg psilocybin (not purified) you would probably not hallucinate (of my readings in the reddit posted in another comment here). But I'm not sure if its possibly to purify it, and I'm not sure what effects 25mg of "purified" psilocybin would have.

Re: Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

#136

Post by gpcr1949 »

sebmellen wrote: post #102
rednum wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not OP, but I've met people that seemed to sort of lost their agency and ambition, because their psychedelic insight was that the universe will sort everything out on its own. Though maybe the causality is the other way round here - they were not ambitious in the first place and psychedelic insight helped rationalise that. Also disclaimer: I'm not trying to discourage or encourage people from psychedelics. Personally…

Just a personal note, I experienced the complete opposite. I knew I wanted to do great things and accomplish things of importance, but depression was like a black cloud holding me back from doing so. Psychedelics took away that cloud and also infused a deep level of meaning into my everyday life. I went from depressed and basically dropping off the edge of the world to traveling across the world and starting a startu…

4-HO-DMT is psilocin, which is illegal in most places.

Re: Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

#137

Post by giantg2 »

simonswords82 wrote: post #10
internetslave wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I get it - a drug is a drug - and like all drugs I am not saying that psychedelics are a cure all for all people. What I am saying is that it is depressing that we are only just seeing reports from formal sources that psychedelics could be useful for some people.

I'm pretty sure there were formal studies decades ago showing potential use and positive outcomes (I think Stamets books from the 90s reference some formal studies, but i could be wrong). But like a lot of medical research, it never progressed to a market state. I think that's especially true in this case due to the legal classification around it.

Re: Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

#138

Post by giantg2 »

vermilingua wrote: post #80
acchow wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what way were their minds ruined?

Any psychadelics (and I think cannabis as well, but much more rarely) can cause a psychotic break, which can’t always be recovered from. It seems to be more prevalent if there is a family history of psychosis. No source, just anecdata, the circles I run in.

There are some studies on PubMed around this. I remember hearing about one that the DoD did involving soldiers who used cannabis and mental illnesses. I wasn't able to find that, but here's a similar one.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2892048/

Re: Psilocybin 'promising' for depression

#139

Post by giantg2 »

vmception wrote: post #109
astura wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely not the case for the people I know. One trip caused permanent psychosis in one case.

who what why when where how ever notice how all these stories lack that? all? look, don’t respond to why that might be, but lets just all push for the study and a legal framework that allows for said studies to exist

Here's a summary with links to studies.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substance-induced_psychosis

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