Psilocybin-assisted group therapy for demoralization in long-term AIDS survivors | Hacker News Reader

Psilocybin-assisted group therapy for demoralization in long-term AIDS survivors

clinicaltrials.ucsf.edu

I firmly believe that a mind-reforming experience like LSD/MDMA/Psilocybin is beneficial to those suffering from debilitating emotional problems. The brain is incredibly plastic, give it a gateway and proper guidance and you can achieve results which border upon near-unreproducibility with any other method.

If it weren't for LSD, I'd have never gotten into lighting research, and the various (read: most common) hobbies associated with it, nor launched a company onto the BBC for no-light fodder production on BBC's Countryfile.

They're all just chemicals, like everything else, including ourselves and the flora which exist within us. Master chemistry and physics, master ourselves.

There seems to be a lot of anecdotes about mushrooms helping people get out of a rut. I am glad this is being studied and hope we find some sort of good findings. Too many people suffer from depression.

Maps.org has funded a number of studies with promising results. We are beyond anecdote at this point.

Also, we have MDMA in phase 3 clinical trials for PTSD working with the VA. Exciting times!

That's amazing news! Hopefully we will enter a new age (pun intended) but this time of rational drug use.

Just last week the FDA also granted MDMA special status as a breakthrough treatment which will also fast track this process.

Could you please link to some of the Phase 3 clinical trials, or some info on them? This is one of my favorite fields and I'm so happy to hear about progress!

http://www.maps.org/news/posts/6669-fda-and-maps-agree-on-pr...

Psychedelics in general seem to offer many benefits when used in conjunction with therapies. Ayahuasca has seen progress in dealing with PTSD, Ibogaine has had incredible results (albeit in small sample sizes) with addiction struggles, there's so much research being stopped because of stringent drug laws.

Well, does it make more sense for me to teach you how to fish, or does it make more sense for me to sell you a fish every day? Drug companies are not innocent and oftentimes are not trying to CURE anything, whereas natural methods actually do result in significant changes in lifestyle and attitude, conventional medicine focuses on keeping the lifestyle the same while changing the brainchem. Which is more sustainable? Which is healthier? Drug laws are not only problematic in what they block, they are problematic in the information they keep hidden from the public because people will always find a way to get products, and we should be focused on making the information freely available and the safety (with use of whatever) of our populous the primary objective

It's benefitted me personally. I wish these things were easier to get ahold of for those purposes, it's current legal status makes it fairly difficult.

A change in perspective can help a lot, I think. Drugs aren't a magical cure, but psychedelics can have a deeply personal impact on people, and sort of force them to look at their life in a different light.

I think that our brains like to split our lives into neat little silos of experience. We were young children, then we were students, then maybe we were in high school, followed by big bricks of more school, or being in the same job/lease, or focusing on the same hobby, etc.

Well, sometimes those bricks of time kinda suck and there don't seem to be many alternatives for change. Not everyone can afford to go back to school or take a trip to the alps for a month of meditative glamping or what-have-you, when they think that it's time to break up the cycle of today being more or less like tomorrow.

Of course, many of these studies also use very low doses of psychedelics alongside more traditional therapy. That's maybe not the sort of thing that seems likely to give someone an experience that inspires a 'first day of the rest of their life' view, so maybe I'm just hand-waving a bunch of hooey. Caveat emptor.

Psilocybin has been shown to activate similar capacities as L-DOPA and other synthetics that basically affect neural chemistry and bring balance back to the brainbody. You are correct that without a commensurate attitudinal shift the effects will be temporary. With a strong supportive group and a strong goal in mind (to be full of contentment without the need to escape one's experience) I think treatment will go very well for those willing to give themselves to the process.

There have been a lot of research on psychedelics after LSD was discovered. But while they had a few positive results, these substances proved too unpredictable to turn it into a proper treatment.

In the end, most people stopped researching it, partly because of the lack of advancement, and partly because of the anti-drug laws.

I just hope that recent research actually goes beyond anecdotal evidence.

The studies had incredible results and microdosing was the clinician's recommendation.

There are places now able to study LSD again after an almost 40-year lockdown/hiatus and the results are really powerful. Some in the UK, some at Purdue, my only concern is that they inject liquid LSD into the bloodstream to prove "control" but it's totally unnecessary, you can eat it just as well or even absorb it through your eye or skin (like Bicycle Day). People need to be educated on its potential, what it illuminates on an MRI, what moto-sensory functions it inhibits and what states of mind it can trend and improve towards. Research would not be as difficult if safety were the primary form of education and not abstinence

Do you have more details about these "incredible" results? Peer-reviewed papers if possible. I am genuinely curious.

The only area I know where LSD really seemed to do great is with some cases of cluster headaches. But cluster headaches tend respond to unrelated treatment. They tried to do a non-psychedelic variant of LSD for this but I don't know the results. There were probably also a few "miracles" too but it is not sufficient to devise a proper treatment.

The reason they inject LSD, I think, is to better control the dosage. When eating it, it is harder to determine when and how much of it is ending up into your bloodstream, which is troublesome for controlled experiments.

There were MRI studies where it shows the brain lights up like a Christmas tree while on LSD. I didn't really surprise me considering its effect but still, maybe we are on to something, or maybe not. fMRI research is hard.

As for microdosing, I am highly skeptical. Not to say that it is ineffective but this is an area where the placebo effect is strong, which mean we need to be extra rigorous with the studies.

Now for safety, LSD is not benign. It is generally non-toxic but it is also known to trigger schizophrenia in people with preexisting conditions. There are other things such as HPPD (a form of "flashbacks") and PTSD-like symptoms caused by "bad trips". It probably doesn't deserve the hard ban we have now but before making a proper treatment, these issues have to be resolved, or at least properly characterized.

This word's use was new and a little puzzling for me.

> Demoralization

More or less the sense that you haven't beaten the problem, just accommodated it by means of huge inconvenience (very demanding pill regimen, or chemotherapy)

Psilocybin was better than therapy by any measure. It's transformed my life positively.

It's definitely not for everyone! In high dosages it can induce feelings of death. I literally felt like I had died. I had no more ego. I didn't know who I was or where I was. There was only math, logic and reasons. It was as if the veils of reality were lifted to reveal what it was: Math. I saw numbers and formulas everywhere. Then it struck me like a freight train, God IS math, our life is complex system of math, we are living in the body of God.

I've read the pineal gland arises on the 49th day when the baby is inside the womb...how the hell did Tibetan monks know this without science millenias ago? The soul is said to enter the body on the 49th day....it's just...science itself is not enough to explain reality and the universe is what I've come to accept.

I'm hard knock atheist but Psilocybin made me experience spirituality in a highly logical and mathematical manner...it's just frighteningly awesome I am struggling to describe it fully....words can't justify

I realized there was a reason to everything in life. I was here where I was because of reasons which in turn induced actions. I was terribly addicted to substances, locked up in my room.

Just taking Psilocybin a few times induced so much positive changes because it made me experience consciouness on a different world...where I had to physical presence but only my conciousness without ego.

I'm getting goose bumps thinking about the trip. Not so pleasant was seeing eyes, lots of eyes, eyes of providence they call it. I realized those eyes have been watching me all this time and if I didn't turn my life around I would be in hell.

The aftermath of this trip, an overwhelming peace and reduced anxiety, I notice I've become way more social and confident, my posture has improved, I've moved my computer to the living room, I've met new people.

Psilocybin is a drug that will give you answer to all your questions. I reckon religious texts were written while on it.

I was a pretty heavy user (1-3 trips a month) for about a year after graduating high school, and I still take it about once a year now. I disagree that it has all the answers, psilocybin does not reveal any great truths or break down the mysteries of the universe. That said I love it and just did a light trip for the eclipse, it can bring calm, peace, love of nature, love of self and others to you, but it is not some magic path to god.

Different strokes for different folks but heavy usage leads to reduced effects due to high tolerance. They recommend waiting up to a month if you take large doses. You are right in that it didn't reveal the mysteries of the universe, but my own internal universe. I could explain my anxiety, previous bouts of depression logically once I stopped letting my ego tell me whatever it wants to see....but it certainly felt like...transcendence of sort...I realized this is what Buddhism and Tibetans discovered through deep meditation, they were able to see reality and universe as it is. I'm very interested in these things now whereas before I only had appreciation for it.

You now believe there's an afterlife where you'll suffer eternally if you do or don't take particular actions in life?

I still got some reservations about this but it's getting hard to ignore!

To me, the Karma system and reincarnation makes sense...like a divine ledger that always balances to zero...where if you gain or lose Karma, it will offset respectively by the same amount by somebody else. This is how I understood the Buddhists view...which I'm constantly trying to see.

Why am I so interested in Buddhism? Well, if this "religion" can accurately predict that the soul enters the fetus on the 49th day preceding science that revealed the pineal gland responsible for consciousness, DMT production is formed after 49 days, what else do these Tibetan buddhists know?

We have so much inequality and I'm not talking about just wealth....if you believe that we are capable of being born as animals or humans, it explains why everything is the way it is....why some animals end up as dinner while others live freely...

Here's a kid that remembers being murdered in his previous life, it's not just an one off case but these type of stories are found throughout history and today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWyHuN1G1vk

I'm not saying everyone on HN should heed everything I wrote but try it out. Take some psilocybin in a safe environment, think through some of the things I've said...which are common repeating themes like the Eye of Providence that so many people see while tripping.

If I self terminate I'll attempt to report back to you. Look for 666 symbolism and a pack of fruit cups offered to you as a place to hide tens of thousands of fiat currency. If you see that you know I'm in hell and reincarnation didn't apply at least to me.

The way it was worded I read that it was intended to induce demoralization, rather than combat it.

That's how I read it, too and was like 'Oh, that doesn't sound like a great research...'

I read it that way too. Maybe it should be of instead of for? Not a native speaker, just wondering.

It's not the best-written title ever, but in general when you see "therapy for X" it means "therapy to cure X", rather than "therapy to cause X".

This is definitely a confusing sentence, especially for a non English speaker. You can reword the sentence and add something in front (e.g. "The researchers"). "The researchers are using psilocybin assisted group therapy for demoralization in long term AIDS survivors."

AIDS surviors have "demoralization in them". The psilocybin assisted group therapy is being used for that demoralization.

> especially for a non English speaker

If you don't speak English, every word will be confusing.

You go through therapy for an issue.

I'd change "for" to "to treat".

Even "group therapy OF demoralization" would add clarity imho, for non-native speakers.

That phrase doesn't mean anything to me, I've never heard some one talk about "therapy of depression"; it's always "therapy for" or "therapy to treat".

(Native American English speaker here.)

To me, a native-english speaker from Britain, it groups like:

> (Psilocybin-assisted group therapy) for (demoralization) in (long-term AIDS survivors).

The 'for' reads to me as 'to induce', rather than 'to treat'. Changing it to 'to treat' is MUCH easier to read imo

How do you feel about "addressing"

That too, would work.

So you speak Navajo? Hehe just poking fun. "Therapy for the treatment of.." is much more common, yes.

Rarely does the word therapy carry the connotation of inducing a condition.

Really? What does "electro-shock therapy" mean to you?

Efficacy aside, electroshock therapy is intended to treat a given disorder, not to induce some disorder. Any pain or side effects of being shocked is separate from the underlying disorder. So "Bob was given electroshock therapy for his schizophrenia" means Bob was shocked to treat his schizophrenia, not induce it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com