Will Psychedelic Therapy Transform Mental Health Care? | Hacker News Reader

Will Psychedelic Therapy Transform Mental Health Care?

nbcnews.com

This is presenting psychedelics as a kind of cure-all for a variety of things that seem unrelated on its surface: anxiety, eating disorders, addiction, trauma, depression, etc. I would argue we are treating symptoms and not figuring out the causes behind these illnesses such that a single drug treats all of them.

I would also note that there are glaring holes: There's no research on sensory issues with psychedelic therapy, something that has co-morbidity with a variety of these disorders which will make treatment more difficult. Psychotic depression, bipolar whose manic symptoms enter psychosis, delusional thinking common in anxiety/depression/eating disorders, and sensory distortions common in PTSD/eating disorders...

I would temper my excitement about this until we can prove either why it works or the specific situations it works in, which I suspect will be far less than the cure-all it's being presented as here. It reminds me of immunotherapy, stem cell treatment, etc.

> I would argue we are treating symptoms and not figuring out the causes behind these illnesses such that a single drug treats all of them.

It's funny that you say that, because it seems that psychedelics may work for a variety of things because they address some lower-level factor, rather than just treating higher-level symptoms.

"In 6-month follow-up interviews, participants were asked: ‘Did this treatment work for you, and if so how?’ and responses were analysed for consistent themes (Watts et al. 2017). Of the 17 patients who endorsed the treatment’s effectiveness, all made reference to one particular mediating factor: a renewed sense of connection or connectedness. This factor was found to have three distinguishable aspects: connection to (1) self, (2) others and (3) the world in general (Watts et al. 2017)."

"In brief, we have proposed that brain serotonin 2A receptor signalling mediates a state of rapid plasticity that is conducive to major change (e.g. in outlook and/or behaviour)—when such change feels necessary (e.g. to aid mental or physical survival). Such a function may be related to humans’ unique capacity for adaptability."

Source/further reading: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28795211

I was able to use a half dozen or so psychs, dissos and MDMA to address issues the medical establishment can't/won't. I have official diagnosis of PTSD, GAD, Major Depression, ADHD and OCD. I was in a very, very bad accident as a child. While, I am "ok" with it in the Freudian sense, It just left me anxious all the time.

These things made dramatic changes to my personality, I was weak, shy, reserved. I'm now confident, self-actualized, empathetic. But they also did trigger DID which had been dormant for a decade. For me, this was actually a good thing. I made peace with those parts of me and I can call upon them when needed.

You kind of hit a wall with self-growth-- You're going to realize a lot of your friendships and relationships are unhealthy. You'll need to remove these unhealthy things. My employer was massively abusive (had to end that), and my wife, while not intentional puts massive amounts of stress on me due to some issues she doesn't care to work on.

People who refuse to grow, or want to keep treating you negatively will label your behavior crazy, and express concern for you when in reality they want to continue the negative patterns you had previously participated in.

I've also gotten to some really scary places mentally, with meditation and dissos achieved brief glimpses of "enlightenment". Which is far less interesting than it sounds. Enlightenment is actually rather lonely. Imagine your mind expanding into an infinite space, an infinite, empty space.

The hardest part has actually been my family. They don't recognize me because, for the first time in their lives, I am not completely, utterly miserable.

A lot of acronyms and slang in this comment, makes it hard to follow.

dissos = dissociatives https://www.reddit.com/r/Drugs/comments/5lijsi/why_dissos/ Ketamine is being researched but no, a psychiatrist isn't going to prescribe it at this time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalized_anxiety_disorder

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_identity_disorder

Re: enlightenment, you might find this subreddit useful. Even if you just want help dealing with negative states produced by meditation.

https://www.reddit.com/r/streamentry/

Hi, thank you very much!

> The hardest part has actually been my family. They don't recognize me because, for the first time in their lives, I am not completely, utterly miserable.

Congratulations on your improvement, that's great to hear.

I hope you're able to update your families view of you to one that is healthier.

That’s really great. I think society really needs more of that. More and more I feel like people acting in their own best (short sighted) interests do not aggregate to a net positive for society nor the world at large.

Agreed. You may also enjoy this psilocybin study that was released last week: http://www.newswise.com/articles/johns-hopkins-study-probes-...

> Altruism: Comparing LD-SS to HD-SS, the effect size was 1.36, which statisticians consider “very large.” Comparing LD-SS to HD-HS, the effect size was 1.95, considered “very large,” almost “huge.”

Psilocybin seemed to cause 'very large' increases in altruism.

Thanks for catching this ;)

Those disorders have never seemed unrelated to me.

> There's no research on sensory issues with psychedelic therapy

Is that not part of the PTSD inventory they administer before and after?

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