Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd
"Leon" is a young Brazilian man who has long struggled with depression. He keeps an anonymous blog, in Portuguese, where he describes the challenge of living with a mental illness that affects some 300 million people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.
Leon is among the roughly 30 percent of those patients with treatment-resistant depression. Available antidepressant drugs like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors do not alleviate his depressed mood, fatigue, anxiety, low self-esteem and suicidal thoughts.
A new study may offer hope for Leon and others like him.
Our team of Brazilian scientists has conducted the first randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial of ayahuasca – a psychedelic drink made of Amazonian plants. The results, recently published in the journal Psychological Medicine, suggest that ayahuasca can work for hard-to-treat depression.
Source: Amazonian psychedelic may ease severe depression, new study shows
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday July 04 2018, @07:40AM
There are several psychedelic substances that have been investigated for depression treatment, including ketamine [soylentnews.org] (approval could be imminent [soylentnews.org]), psilocybin [soylentnews.org], MDMA [maps.org], LSD [jneurosci.org], mescaline/peyote [discovermagazine.com], etc. These substances could also help people to laugh at bad jokes.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]