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: 3, Informative) by takyon on Wednesday July 04 2018, @08:09AM
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2127802-psychedelic-drug-ayahuasca-improves-hard-to-treat-depression/ [newscientist.com]
Similar psychedelics [soylentnews.org] also show benefits that can last for weeks or months following a single treatment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayahuasca#Effects [wikipedia.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]