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DPMC Moderators: tryptakid
Magic mushrooms for anxiety and depression
- Thread starter slimvictor
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poledriver
Bluelighter
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- Jul 21, 2005
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Study finds magic mushrooms may ease chronic depression symptoms
Study finds magic mushrooms may ease chronic depression symptoms
Hallucination-inducing "magic" mushrooms could help some people ease the anxiety caused by chronic depression, according to a small-scale study released today.
"This is the first time that psilocybin" - a mind-altering chemical in several species of mushroom - "has been investigated as a potential treatment for major depression," lead author Robin Carhart-Harris of Imperial College London said in a statement.
The study only involved 12 people and did not use a placebo-taking control group.
But the results, published in The Lancet Psychiatry peer-reviewed medical journal, were encouraging enough to merit further trials, he said.
All of the subjects had tried at least two standard drug treatments without success, and most had also undergone psychotherapy.
Clinical depression is a debilitating disease that affects tens of millions of people worldwide.
Antidepressants and talk therapy don't work for about one in five patients, highlighting the need for alternate treatments.
Psilocybin stimulates receptors for serotonin, a naturally occurring chemical in the brain that affects mood.
Many antidepressants, known as SSRIs, are designed to boost serotonin levels.
In the experiment, Carhart-Harris and colleagues gave two doses of psilocybin, a week apart, to six men and six women suffering moderate to severe depression.
The first dose was small, to test for adverse side-effects.
The next dose, 25mg, was strong enough to cause hallucinations.
Patients lay in beds in a quiet room, listening to classical music. They were encouraged to "explore their own mental space", or imagine a pleasant landscape.
They all reported mild nervousness as the drug took hold within 30 to 60 minutes, but there were no serious side-effects.
Each session lasted six hours - with "peaking" occurring half way through, and was monitored by two psychiatrists.
Doctors followed up at regular intervals following the experiment.
All patients showed some improvement one week later, and eight out of 12 showed "temporary remission".
After three months, seven of the patients continued to show improvement, and five were still in remission.
These results "are promising but not completely compelling," commented Philip Cowen, a clinical scientist and professor at the University of Oxford.
"Further follow-ups using detailed qualitative interviews with patients and family could be very helpful in enriching the assessment," he wrote, also in The Lancet Psychiatry.
Another expert not involved in the study expressed greater scepticism.
Given the small number of subjects and lack of a control group, "it is impossible to attribute clinical efficacy to the drug," said Jonathan Flint, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Oxford.
Along with LSD and other hallucinogens popular as recreational drugs in the 1960 and 1970s, psilocybin is classified as a "controlled substance" and is illegal in most countries.
- http://www.9news.com.au/health/2016...ld-people-with-depression#rGfZr8GABBhSerMp.99
Study finds magic mushrooms may ease chronic depression symptoms
Hallucination-inducing "magic" mushrooms could help some people ease the anxiety caused by chronic depression, according to a small-scale study released today.
"This is the first time that psilocybin" - a mind-altering chemical in several species of mushroom - "has been investigated as a potential treatment for major depression," lead author Robin Carhart-Harris of Imperial College London said in a statement.
The study only involved 12 people and did not use a placebo-taking control group.
But the results, published in The Lancet Psychiatry peer-reviewed medical journal, were encouraging enough to merit further trials, he said.
All of the subjects had tried at least two standard drug treatments without success, and most had also undergone psychotherapy.
Clinical depression is a debilitating disease that affects tens of millions of people worldwide.
Antidepressants and talk therapy don't work for about one in five patients, highlighting the need for alternate treatments.
Psilocybin stimulates receptors for serotonin, a naturally occurring chemical in the brain that affects mood.
Many antidepressants, known as SSRIs, are designed to boost serotonin levels.
In the experiment, Carhart-Harris and colleagues gave two doses of psilocybin, a week apart, to six men and six women suffering moderate to severe depression.
The first dose was small, to test for adverse side-effects.
The next dose, 25mg, was strong enough to cause hallucinations.
Patients lay in beds in a quiet room, listening to classical music. They were encouraged to "explore their own mental space", or imagine a pleasant landscape.
They all reported mild nervousness as the drug took hold within 30 to 60 minutes, but there were no serious side-effects.
Each session lasted six hours - with "peaking" occurring half way through, and was monitored by two psychiatrists.
Doctors followed up at regular intervals following the experiment.
All patients showed some improvement one week later, and eight out of 12 showed "temporary remission".
After three months, seven of the patients continued to show improvement, and five were still in remission.
These results "are promising but not completely compelling," commented Philip Cowen, a clinical scientist and professor at the University of Oxford.
"Further follow-ups using detailed qualitative interviews with patients and family could be very helpful in enriching the assessment," he wrote, also in The Lancet Psychiatry.
Another expert not involved in the study expressed greater scepticism.
Given the small number of subjects and lack of a control group, "it is impossible to attribute clinical efficacy to the drug," said Jonathan Flint, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Oxford.
Along with LSD and other hallucinogens popular as recreational drugs in the 1960 and 1970s, psilocybin is classified as a "controlled substance" and is illegal in most countries.
- http://www.9news.com.au/health/2016...ld-people-with-depression#rGfZr8GABBhSerMp.99
Safest drug on the planet may cure more bad things
Psilocybin shown to ease anxiety and depression in cancer patients
Melissa Healy - L.A Times
In findings that could pry open a door closed for nearly half a century, researchers have found that psilocybin — a hallucinogen long used in traditional healing rituals — eases the depression and soothes the anxiety of patients contending with serious illness and the prospect of imminent death.
In two separate studies published Thursday, researchers report that trial subjects who received a single moderate-to-large dose of psilocybin got substantial and lasting relief from their profound distress. Among 80 cancer patients who participated in the two trials, as many as 4 in 5 continued to feel measurably less hopeless and demoralized six months after taking the drug than they had upon their recruitment.
And even years later, many reported they had gained — and retained — a profound sense of peace and meaning from the experience. Of 29 cancer patients who got psilocybin in a trial conducted at New York University’s Langone Medical Center, 20 rated it as “among the most meaningful” events of their life.
“This drug saved my life and changed my life,” said Dinah Bazer, a Brooklyn, N.Y., woman who was administered a single dose of psilocybin at a New York treatment center in 2011.
In the wake of treatment for ovarian cancer, Bazer said, her anxiety at the prospect of its return was “eating her alive.” Under the influence of a single high dose of psilocybin, Bazer said Wednesday, she became “volcanically angry” as she visualized her cancer as a dark mass bearing down on her. With an epithet, she then saw herself throwing it off.
“I was bathed in God’s love” for hours after that, said Bazer, who describes herself as an atheist. When the psilocybin’s hallucinatory effects wore off, she said, two years of intense anxiety were simply gone.
“This is a groundbreaking result,” said Dr. George Greer, medical director of the Heffter Research Institute, the nonprofit organization that funded the two trials.
Greer suggested that the “existential anxiety” of the terminally ill is only one of many conditions that psilocybin may one day treat. Others may include treatment-resistant depression, addiction to cocaine, alcohol or tobacco, obsessive-compulsive disorder and “demoralization” in long-term survivors of HIV, he said.
continued
Melissa Healy - L.A Times
In findings that could pry open a door closed for nearly half a century, researchers have found that psilocybin — a hallucinogen long used in traditional healing rituals — eases the depression and soothes the anxiety of patients contending with serious illness and the prospect of imminent death.
In two separate studies published Thursday, researchers report that trial subjects who received a single moderate-to-large dose of psilocybin got substantial and lasting relief from their profound distress. Among 80 cancer patients who participated in the two trials, as many as 4 in 5 continued to feel measurably less hopeless and demoralized six months after taking the drug than they had upon their recruitment.
And even years later, many reported they had gained — and retained — a profound sense of peace and meaning from the experience. Of 29 cancer patients who got psilocybin in a trial conducted at New York University’s Langone Medical Center, 20 rated it as “among the most meaningful” events of their life.
“This drug saved my life and changed my life,” said Dinah Bazer, a Brooklyn, N.Y., woman who was administered a single dose of psilocybin at a New York treatment center in 2011.
In the wake of treatment for ovarian cancer, Bazer said, her anxiety at the prospect of its return was “eating her alive.” Under the influence of a single high dose of psilocybin, Bazer said Wednesday, she became “volcanically angry” as she visualized her cancer as a dark mass bearing down on her. With an epithet, she then saw herself throwing it off.
“I was bathed in God’s love” for hours after that, said Bazer, who describes herself as an atheist. When the psilocybin’s hallucinatory effects wore off, she said, two years of intense anxiety were simply gone.
“This is a groundbreaking result,” said Dr. George Greer, medical director of the Heffter Research Institute, the nonprofit organization that funded the two trials.
Greer suggested that the “existential anxiety” of the terminally ill is only one of many conditions that psilocybin may one day treat. Others may include treatment-resistant depression, addiction to cocaine, alcohol or tobacco, obsessive-compulsive disorder and “demoralization” in long-term survivors of HIV, he said.
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Burnt Offerings
Bluelight Crew
There's so much potential in psilocybin, it's a very special drug IMO. The fact that it has been outlawed and denied to the public is just another injustice within the much larger injustice called the War on Drugs.