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Comment by TeaDrunk | Hacker News Reader

I highly disagree, mostly because I've yet to see any real long-term studies that show that taking psychedelics actually benefits people long term to the point where we should make literally everyone take it. I have an illness on the psychotic spectrum that I wasn't able to get treatment or addressment for until my 20's, which is when such disorders can begin manifesting if they are to manifest. Psychotic and dissociative disorders are also a significant portion of the human population and are often neglected or straight up ignored in discussions like this.

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We shouldn't make literally everyone take it, that's silly. The John's Hopkins studies do show sustained long term (6-12 months) clinical improvements for about 80% of test subjects -- from a single dose. No other psychopharmaceutical drug comes close to such success, much less with a single dose.

Test subjects that are highly selected for to avoid the exact conditions I was describing. We need larger studies before we make such bold claims that potentially make invisible or completely overlook the variety of mental conditions that this sort of plan would expose people of. Additionally, 6 to 12 months is not nearly long enough to say that an entire population should be dosed with a drug.

Yes, anyone trying to push these drugs on literally everyone is a fool. The reason people with pre-existing psychosis like schizophrenia are being ruled out of such studies is because the risk is plainly obvious.

That's why doctors often prescribe medicine with the caveat "do not take drug A if you have conditions XYZ"

Which is why I'm highly disagreeing with the concept that such drugs should be widely or anywhere near universally taken. You'll likely have a significant subset of people who shouldn't be taking this medication, either due to being related to someone with a psychotic or dissociative disorder, or having one themselves. I also worry about people whose existing schizotypal traits are within normal bounds but may be exaggerated by psychedelics to a negative outcome.

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