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The BBC reports on a small trial (12 patients) that used psilocybin to treat "moderate-to-severe, unipolar, treatment-resistant" depression:
A hallucinogenic chemical in magic mushrooms shows promise for people with untreatable depression, a short study on just 12 people hints. Eight patients were no longer depressed after the "mystical and spiritual" experience induced by the drug. The findings, in the Lancet Psychiatry [open, DOI: 10.1016/S2215-0366(16)30065-7], showed five of the patients were still depression-free after three months.
Experts cautiously welcomed the findings as "promising, but not completely compelling". There have now been calls for the drug to be tested in larger trials.
From the study:
Psilocybin's acute psychedelic effects typically became detectable 30–60 min after dosing, peaked 2–3 h after dosing, and subsided to negligible levels at least 6 h after dosing. Mean self-rated intensity (on a 0–1 scale) was 0·51 (SD 0·36) for the low-dose session and 0·75 (SD 0·27) for the high-dose session. Psilocybin was well tolerated by all of the patients, and no serious or unexpected adverse events occurred. The adverse reactions we noted were transient anxiety during drug onset (all patients), transient confusion or thought disorder (nine patients), mild and transient nausea (four patients), and transient headache (four patients). Relative to baseline, depressive symptoms were markedly reduced 1 week (mean QIDS difference −11·8, 95% CI −9·15 to −14·35, p=0·002, Hedges' g=3·1) and 3 months (−9·2, 95% CI −5·69 to −12·71, p=0·003, Hedges' g=2) after high-dose treatment. Marked and sustained improvements in anxiety and anhedonia were also noted.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by kurenai.tsubasa on Wednesday May 18 2016, @05:36PM
This is more confirmation of what a lot of people have already known. Psilocybin mushroom and iboga root in particular are good with treating addictions. LSD-25 as well if you don't mind doing some lab work on the lysergic acid in ergot. Heck, even good old cannabis flower works in cases of moderate depression.*
Let's compare those to what big pharma wants to hook us on.
- Mom Nature: nonaddictive (even un-addictive in the case of psilocybin, haven't tried LSD or iboga myself). Big Pharma: addictive as hell to the point you need medical assistance to even quit without risking such fun things as seizures or even temporary insanity!
- Mom Nature: effective after one or two experiences (cannabis flower may require use 2 or 3 times per week to be effective so wouldn't recommend for severe depression). Big Pharma: take these pills once or twice per day and maybe, perhaps, in 2-3 months, there might just be a little... unquantifiable effect?
- Mom Nature: grow this in your closet (except LSD-25)! Big Pharma: that'll be $$$ every month. Wanna fly, kid? Gotta buy.**
- Mom Nature: it's perfectly natural to want to experience a spirit journey. Big Pharma: you have low serotonin even though we haven't done jack for blood work or other tests to establish that. These pills will fix everything. If they don't, well try another pill with another brand name. Failing that, that's just something wrong with you and you haven't been trying hard enough.
- Mom Nature: after you've felt yourself reconnected to nature and the cosmos, you may notice yourself effortlessly exercising more, becoming more fit, losing weight, and experiencing renewed energy. You may find yourself sleeping better and waking up well rested. Big Pharma: side effects may include among others nausea; nervousness, agitation or restlessness; dizziness; reduced sexual desire or difficulty reaching orgasm or inability to maintain an erection (erectile dysfunction); drowsiness; insomnia; weight gain or loss (which one we dunno lol or even why); headache; dry mouth; vomiting; and diarrhea. (sauce [mayoclinic.org])
* Hmm... there is a correlation between depression and cannabis flower usage. Cannabis flower must be the causation and never the other way around! /s
** I keep trying and trying to find this commercial/PSA from the 80s, maybe early 90s, but it eludes me. It was an acid trip all unto itself. There were these, like, talking shoes, man, and one of the shoes got the other shoe hook on "drugs," man. Then the shoe who's like, hooked, man, wants to score but he doesn't have the money, you know? So the other shoe says to him, "Wanna fly, kid? Gotta buy." That quote and the talking sneakers are the only things I remember.
(Score: 1) by DeathElk on Wednesday May 18 2016, @10:31PM
Talking sneakers. Hmmm, been doing some of your own research have we? ;)
(Score: 1) by kurenai.tsubasa on Thursday May 19 2016, @03:33PM
Heh, I may or may not have some independent research in the pipeline... for science! I wish I could find that PSA, it was just... *wow*. I remember I must have seen it at least 20 or 30 times before it stopped airing. I think it was claymation or else some kind of stop motion. I wonder if there's some kind of archive of PSAs in some corner of the internet I haven't stumbled across yet.