Can LSD cure depression?

[slimvictor]

Until recently, prescribing Ecstasy, mescaline or magic mushrooms has been a guaranteed way for a psychiatrist to lose his research funding, his job or even his liberty. But now, scientists are beginning to suspect that such illegal drugs may be the key to treating a range of intractable illnesses, from post-traumatic stress disorder to depression.

These chemicals – which include the psychedelic drugs psilocybin, derived from magic mushrooms, and LSD, as well as ecstasy – affect the way we think and behave, as well as causing hallucinations and mystical experiences. Yet a series of studies performed in Britain and the US is beginning to tease out their potential benefits. One, into the effects of Ecstasy, is featured in the controversial Channel 4 documentary, Drugs Live, tomorrow night.

“People become very emotionally tender on Ecstasy, which makes you more responsive to psychotherapy,” explains Dr Robin Carhart-Harris, one of the experts involved. In the televised study, either a dose of ecstasy or a placebo was given to 26 volunteers, including the writer Lionel Shriver and the former Lib Dem MP Dr Evan Harris. They were then put through a brain scanner by scientists at Imperial College London to see precisely where these drugs have an effect.

It was found that, in the volunteers given the proper drug, the area of their brain involved in positive memories became more active, while another processing negative memories was damped down. “We think this would make it easier for patients to revisit a traumatic memory and overwrite or control it,” says Carhart-Harris. Earlier studies have made surprising discoveries about what psilocybin, a class-A drug in Britain, was doing in the brain. These in turn could lead to new treatments for depression and agonising cluster headaches.

cont at
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/9565026/Can-LSD-cure-depression.html

 

[paranoid android]

I suffer from bipolar depression alot and i can say LSD definitely helps my depression alot. After a trip or sometimes too the anti-depressant effect can last anywhere from say only 2 weeks or up to a few months depending on how bad my depression happens to be. Psilocybin tends to help my depression more then LSD does I guess the major pro's to LSD and psilocybin would be not having to take it everyday to be effective like every anti-depressant currently on the market, having it work instantly as opposed to anywhere from a week to a month or longer, neither has anywhere close to the side effects of drugs currently marketed as anti-depressants and the lack of physical dependance is always a plus.

I guess the cons would be the possibility of a bad trip that could cause long lasting effects in very rare cases. Though in my experience you can usually help a person in a bad trip by talking them down unless they have gone beyond that point. If that fails a benzo would kill it.

I have also taken Psilocybin and LSD for migraines as i used to suffer from them alot when i was younger. I very rarely get them now thank fuck. I found either (with a anti-nausea drug like dimenhydrinate or anything else that won't kill the trip) to put a end to migraines right away. They work more consistently and are actually much cheaper then the tryptins such as Rizatriptan.

 

[qwe]

Until recently, prescribing Ecstasy, mescaline or magic mushrooms has been a guaranteed way for a psychiatrist to lose his research funding, his job or even his liberty. For several decades, scientists have suspected that such illegal drugs may be the key to treating a range of intractable illnesses, from post-traumatic stress disorder to depression.

fixed. do your jobs, journalists.

 

[slimvictor]

I suffer from bipolar depression alot and i can say LSD definitely helps my depression alot. After a trip or sometimes too the anti-depressant effect can last anywhere from say only 2 weeks or up to a few months depending on how bad my depression happens to be. Psilocybin tends to help my depression more then LSD does I guess the major pro's to LSD and psilocybin would be not having to take it everyday to be effective like every anti-depressant currently on the market, having it work instantly as opposed to anywhere from a week to a month or longer, neither has anywhere close to the side effects of drugs currently marketed as anti-depressants and the lack of physical dependance is always a plus.

I guess the cons would be the possibility of a bad trip that could cause long lasting effects in very rare cases. Though in my experience you can usually help a person in a bad trip by talking them down unless they have gone beyond that point. If that fails a benzo would kill it.

I have also taken Psilocybin and LSD for migraines as i used to suffer from them alot when i was younger. I very rarely get them now thank fuck. I found either (with a anti-nausea drug like dimenhydrinate or anything else that won't kill the trip) to put a end to migraines right away. They work more consistently and are actually much cheaper then the tryptins such as Rizatriptan.

Interesting.
If I were severely depressed, I would be scared to take a high dose of LSD or mushrooms.
Once, when I was somewhat depressed, I took a high dose of LSD and had a really awful trip, that took weeks or months to recover from.
After that, I have tried to only take psychedelics when I am in a good mental / emotional space.
But hearing your story makes me happy that they work for some people, at least.