Psychoactive drugs: From recreation to medication

monstanoodle

monstanoodle

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FROM the relaxing effects of cannabis to the highs of LSD and ecstasy, illegal drugs are not generally associated with the lab bench. Now, for the first time in decades, that is starting to change.

For almost 40 years, mainstream research has shied away from investigating the therapeutic benefits of drugs whose recreational use is prohibited by law. But a better understanding of how these drugs work in animal studies, and the advancement of brain-imaging techniques, has sparked a swathe of new research. What's more, clinical trials of MDMA (ecstasy), LSD and other psychoactive drugs are starting to yield some positive results. This could lead to a call for governments to take a new approach to the funding and regulation of research into the potential benefits of such chemicals.

LSD was developed in the 1940s (see "The highs and lows of LSD") but by the 1970s it and many other drugs became classed as schedule 1 in many countries - described as "abuse" drugs with no accepted medical use. "Research on psychedelics was severely restricted and interest in the therapeutic use of these drugs faded," says Franz Vollenweider of the neuropsychopharmacology and brain-imaging unit at the Zurich University Hospital of Psychiatry, Switzerland.

The classification of LSD as schedule 1 was a mistake born of "ignorance and taboo", says Amanda Feilding, director of the Beckley Foundation, a charitable trust that promotes investigation into consciousness and its modulation, based in Oxford, UK.

These kinds of decisions are political not scientific, says Michael Mithoefer, a psychiatrist in Mount Pleasant, California. "When the US Drug Enforcement Agency held hearings about MDMA, the judge ruled it did not meet criteria for schedule 1 and should be schedule 3, so it could be used by physicians but not sold in bars. The DEA administrator put it in schedule 1 despite it not meeting the criteria."

Despite these hurdles, a number of trials are now under way in the US and Switzerland to investigate the potential of LSD and psilocybin - the psychoactive component of magic mushrooms - in helping terminal cancer patients deal with anxiety and depression.

Feilding is also working with David Nutt of Imperial College London on the first UK study using psychedelics for 40 years. Among other things, they are researching how psilocybin can help in recalling distant memories, which they say could help with psychotherapy following trauma.
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Linky to the full article @ The New Scientist
 
Just read this today.

Seems to be a good summary of the state of things.

Glad things are looking brighter for drugs that are over-stigmatized.
 
'Magic mushrooms' ingredient may ease end-of-life anxiety

(Health.com) -- Terminally ill cancer patients struggling with anxiety may get some relief from a guided "trip" on the hallucinogenic drug psilocybin, a new study suggests.

The study included 12 patients who took a small dose of psilocybin -- the active ingredient in "magic mushrooms" -- while under the supervision of trained therapists. In a separate session, the participants took a placebo pill, which had little effect on their symptoms.

By contrast, one to three months after taking psilocybin the patients reported feeling less anxious and their overall mood had improved. By the six-month mark, the group's average score on a common scale used to measure depression had declined by 30 percent, according to the study, which was published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.


You can read the rest of the article here
 
The article says this was the first study of it's type in over 35 years.

I'm glad the medical establishment is taking another look at psilocybin and MDMA, I think anyone with experience with these chemicals knows how much potential they have for dealing with psychological issues.
 
Volunteers reported feeling less depressed and anxious two weeks after receiving psilocybin but not two weeks after niacin alone. Six months later, the level of depression was significantly lower in all volunteers than it had been before the treatments began.

Volunteers reported mildly altered states of consciousness after receiving psilocybin but noted no adverse physiological effects. With higher doses, the authors suggest the beneficial effects could become more pronounced, although further tests are needed to examine safety and efficacy.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19405-magic-mushrooms-reduce-anxiety-over-cancer.html
 
This was a wonderful study that I heard of through a documentary on NatGeo. "Inside LSD" is the title. Good stuff, there are torrents everywhere.
 
It's kinda funny how the mainstream establishment is just starting to accept the benefits of psychedelics/empathogens. While most users of MDMA/shrooms/LSD already know about these benefits for quite a while.
 
Yes definitely :)

It's sad, and rather naive, to think that substances that people use recreationally don't have potential for medical use.
Thankfully, thanks to organisations such as MAPS, the people who have say on whether such substances have medicinal benefit are starting to notice that they actually do... Finally 8)
 
Fuck that. If I was terminally ill with cancer shrooms would be the last drug I would take. They probably feel less anxious afterward because dying would be a relief after that psychological mindfuck.

Give them a lot of opiates, mdma, and ludes. That's the ticket.
 
The only thing that irks me about this article is how selective they were with Hoffman's recounts of his trips; They make it seem as if he'd had horrible, unrewarding experiences.
 
Transcendence said:
Fuck that. If I was terminally ill with cancer shrooms would be the last drug I would take. They probably feel less anxious afterward because dying would be a relief after that psychological mindfuck.

Give them a lot of opiates, mdma, and ludes. That's the ticket.
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Either you are being sarcastic, or you are a tool that did something stupid with mushrooms, like take 8g your first trip...
 
therapture said:
Either you are being sarcastic, or you are a tool that did something stupid with mushrooms, like take 8g your first trip...
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Huh? You have to learn to dispel that dichotomous thinking - it won't get you very far. Why are those the only two possibilities?

I am very experienced with shrooms (among other psychedelics) and have used them many dozens of times in many different varieties and at many different dosage increments. I've had horrifying experiences, enlightening experiences, hilarious experiences, and boring experiences. Although I consider them a poor choice for recreation compared to other psychedelics, I find psilocybin to be the most valuable for putting my relationships into perspective and my priorities in order.

I recognize that everyone responds to compounds differently and what may be useful to me for one purpose may not be to others and vice versa. If you reread my post you'll notice that I never said psilocybin would be worthless to cancer patients, I simply wrote that it would be the last choice I would take in that position because of the likelihood it would compound my anxieties rather than relieve them. "Fuck that" was my personal response to the thought of chomping down mushies and contemplating cancer spreading throughout my body. However, it obviously works for some people so there you have it.

pip pip, cheerio.
 
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