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Psilocybin bests SSRI for major depression in first long-term comparison

medscape.com

241–250 of 397 posts

Re: Psilocybin bests SSRI for major depression in first long-term comparison

#241
post #236

Anecdotally: worked for me, would absolutely do it again. People worry about various side-effects: I work extremely hard and know others who have done psychedelics and continue with b2b saas and similar. That said, it’s serious stuff. I think it permanently increased the amount that I like music; other studies show longtitudinal changes to big-five personality traits. Proceed with caution.

How do you even go about proper dosing and frequency of psilocybin use? Just random guess?

Not totally random, but yeah it's kind of a crap shoot. But to be fair it's no different than a lot of other pharmaceuticals where it's just trial and error until you figure out what works for you.

So like pharmaceuticals, you figure out your goals, go with something in the range that works for most people. It doesn't hurt to start very small (0.25g), which some people do every day. There's a lot of variables including strains and even when/what you ate last, where you are in any kind of hormone swing (men have them too), so trial and error is about as best we can get for now (recreationally). This is why I'm really excited by these new pharmaceuticals.

Re: Psilocybin bests SSRI for major depression in first long-term comparison

#242
post #240

The results are based on a grand total of 25 people in the psilocybin group and 21 people in the SSRI group. The sample size is pretty small. The methodology is also kind of strange, the psilocybin group got a total of 20 hours of in-person therapy during their 'treatment' and 6 follow-up skype calls, whereas the SSRI didn't get anything other than the 6 month questionaire. Those 20 hours of personalized therapy whil…

If that's true, I'm confused how this is a "double-blind, randomized, controlled trial"? Also, what's up with drug studies always having such a low sample size? Is it really that hard to find people who'd volunteer to get free drugs?

Often you’re not allowed on your medication for any of your other health issues.

Re: Psilocybin bests SSRI for major depression in first long-term comparison

#243
post #21

Psilocybin saved my life. I'm no longer suicidal, I'm no longer a practicing alcoholic, and outside of a few things here and there, I'm generally at peace with my life. I cannot express how grateful I am for psilocybin.

Same. Grew them myself. Microdose regularly. Take big trips once in a while. It completely changed my life.

Re: Psilocybin bests SSRI for major depression in first long-term comparison

#244
post #236

Anecdotally: worked for me, would absolutely do it again. People worry about various side-effects: I work extremely hard and know others who have done psychedelics and continue with b2b saas and similar. That said, it’s serious stuff. I think it permanently increased the amount that I like music; other studies show longtitudinal changes to big-five personality traits. Proceed with caution.

How do you even go about proper dosing and frequency of psilocybin use? Just random guess?

Anecdotal but whenever I’ve been asked for this guidance (having been around the block, but not a shaman by any means) I ask about the person’s dreams. Do they usually remember them, how intense are they? More intense = start with lower dose (maybe .5g). Less so maybe start with 1 or 1.5g. Of course this is subjective and relative but a rule of thumb that has worked reasonably well.

For frequency, that depends on a variety of factors I suppose.

Re: Psilocybin bests SSRI for major depression in first long-term comparison

#245

Ok like most of you I’ve taken psychedelic drugs. I’ve had bad experiences sure, but I’m fine now. The issue is that what people generally say, like, “oh sometimes you need to encounter your demons,” maybe that will be temporarily traumatizing—in general people recover from that. The real issues are…more complex. More complex than any diagnoses in the DSM can cover. The brain is very complicated, and everyone’s brain…

>Thoughts came out of nowhere, I had no control over them; often the constant, unceasing flow of thought was distressing and uncomfortable. I want to touch on this. "You" never have any control of your thoughts, because "you" isn't really a thing. Psychedelics and meditation teach us this if you pay close attention. The thoughts arise from nowhere and we - the imagined, but illusory - self are mere observers along fo…

"You" can learn to steer your mind by choosing which of these thoughts to capture and dwell on, by monitoring them.

There is voluminous writing in the area of monastic spiritually about this. On the one hand, they affirm that these thoughts aren't chosen, using the vocabulary of sinful thoughts introduced by demons. But it's also clear that change is possible through prayer/meditation (not exactly identical to modern ideas about mindfulness).

Re: Psilocybin bests SSRI for major depression in first long-term comparison

#246

The results are based on a grand total of 25 people in the psilocybin group and 21 people in the SSRI group. The sample size is pretty small. The methodology is also kind of strange, the psilocybin group got a total of 20 hours of in-person therapy during their 'treatment' and 6 follow-up skype calls, whereas the SSRI didn't get anything other than the 6 month questionaire. Those 20 hours of personalized therapy whil…

The article states that both groups received psychological support though. The only mention of 20 hours I find in the article is as an option to psilocybin. Does the original research article say something else?

Re: Psilocybin bests SSRI for major depression in first long-term comparison

#247
post #21

Psilocybin saved my life. I'm no longer suicidal, I'm no longer a practicing alcoholic, and outside of a few things here and there, I'm generally at peace with my life. I cannot express how grateful I am for psilocybin.

That is so wonderful to hear!

Re: Psilocybin bests SSRI for major depression in first long-term comparison

#248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it something that you still take here and there or was it a time limited therapy ? Congrats on finding a cure for your ailments

Psilocybin tolerance starts building immediately. Even if you microdose (100 mg), it will stop being effective after 3-4 days.

Is there evidence of this?

Re: Psilocybin bests SSRI for major depression in first long-term comparison

#249
post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only valuable conversation about such research is an objective discussion of the quality of the study at hand.

> The only valuable conversation about such research is an objective discussion of the quality of the study at hand. No People's lived experience is very useful

Those are called anecdotes.

Empirically, they're usually not nearly as useful as people think. People are on average unreliable observers of their own experiences.

Much better than individual anecdotes are collections of anecdotes that are searchable and somewhat categorized. A lot of old school drug forums provide this.

Much better still is systematically varying data and taking statistics to separate signal from noise.

Re: Psilocybin bests SSRI for major depression in first long-term comparison

#250
post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Thoughts came out of nowhere, I had no control over them; often the constant, unceasing flow of thought was distressing and uncomfortable. I want to touch on this. "You" never have any control of your thoughts, because "you" isn't really a thing. Psychedelics and meditation teach us this if you pay close attention. The thoughts arise from nowhere and we - the imagined, but illusory - self are mere observers along fo…

"You" can learn to steer your mind by choosing which of these thoughts to capture and dwell on, by monitoring them. There is voluminous writing in the area of monastic spiritually about this. On the one hand, they affirm that these thoughts aren't chosen, using the vocabulary of sinful thoughts introduced by demons. But it's also clear that change is possible through prayer/meditation (not exactly identical to modern…

I tend to agree that change is possible and you can learn to steer, but that too is no choice.
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