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

Exercise also bests SSRIs. Having had multiple close family members and friends try various cocktails of SSRIs and other drugs for depression, bipolar disorder, and borderline personality disorder, and having to see the side effects they experience, and how many different dosings and combinations need to be tried before they find something that doesn’t make them worse, I would not recommend such medication to anyone with similar issues without trying other more conservative approaches first.

The US government severely restricts research on Schedule 1 drugs like psilocybin. Physicians don't have the data they need to inform patients.

What 2 decades of on & off therapies and meds couldn't fix, a single psilocybin trip fixed in 5 hours. That's all the proof I need.

Not even getting into the side-effects of SSRIs including PSSD, brain zaps, lethargy, and a whole lot more.

I just don't understand people who do this shit recreationally, as it was quite possibly the worst experience I had in my life.

Taking psychedelics is a bit like trying to fix a Swiss watch with a sledgehammer: it might just work, but that's not the way to bet. Therapy and well-guided meditative practice can be a lot gentler than that.

The idea that doctors aren't constantly "off base" and must be deferred to uncritically is pretty terrible.

For example, it took literally two decades after it became well known that peptic ulcers were mostly caused by bacteria for the medical community to embrace giving anti-biotics for GI pain. To this day, there are still many American doctors who don't actually know about the Nobel Prize given in 2000 for this discovery, and claim it's "stress" and tell you to go home. Some claim they "know" but than try to "change your gut PH" and still refuse to give antibiotics due to "superbug" risk.

This is a "small" thing (GI pain is not small to those who have it) - but if the doctors are screwing up such a small thing institutionally, what else do they mess up on?

One is travelers sickness. Doctors in the USA do not want to perscribe front line antibiotics for it because of fear of superbugs - but they'll uncritically go eat their lunch at a McDonalds that same day, where they consume meat bathed in antibiotic slop which is more likely to contribute to superbugs then the amoxicillin that they didn't give you would have.

Or what about right now, when it's become clear that Ozempic is literally a super-drug. Every doctor on earth should be trying to give that stuff to literally anyone.

I can go to "third world countries" with deregulated health systems and get infinitely better care that I have real control over for on the orders of 1 USD (that's how much it cost for me in Thailand to get front line antibiotics for travelers sickness INCLUDING THE DOCTORS VISIT!)

Why do we still sell Neosporin despite doctors wanting it off the market (also for risk of superbugs)? Why do few people in America use Providone-iodine for wound treatment despite it being by far the best solution scientifically for it (and it stains yellow)? Maybe it's because we're stupid. There really aren't better explanations.

What about Circumcision? I'd straight up put doctors who do it in jail and many European nations would do the same. American doctors think circumcision is just fine, and long, deeply bitter swaths of medical ethics journals are dedicated to fighting over this again and again.

Or what about the widespread disagreement over even basic stuff like digital rectal exams? There's no agreement on if they are worth it because often sticking one's hand up the butt of an old man does more damage to them than finding out that they (like everyone else at old age) have benign prostate cancer?

Doctors in America have not earned their position of deference. The scientifically minded on HN who do their own research can and often do know how to treat certain conditions better than white-coats.