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Comment by banads | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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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