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Comment by servytor | Hacker News Reader

I have always thought it is hysterical that there are street drugs (MDMA, Ketamine) that have an immediate impact on emotions, yet the global medical establishment only supports drugs that take 2-4 weeks to 'kick in' with a very slight change that a substantial amount of patients do not even get. What is going on when we measure competency that way.

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I'm not sure if you're serious or not, but there's a difference between drugs that make you feel good by forcibly triggering your brain's happy paths for a few hours (often followed by severe depression of those paths), and therapies that try to jolt your brain into producing more happy-path-inducing chemicals naturally, without further assistance.

As evidenced by the article, under the right circumstances, these substances can actually help people in a serious way.

That's a severe misunderstanding of how these compounds work

On one hand you have a single acute dose (in your words "jolting") which can profoundly 'rewire' synaptic connections

On the other hand you have a compound administered chronically to induce changes that may not last after removing the medication. The goal is the same rewiring but considering dropout rates and success rates of treatment its absolutely lacklustre

Generally speaking, the compounds that are illegal are more profoundly impactful because if their high affinity and specificity than compounds available for prescription

Without further assistance? Anti-depressants are notorious for developing tolerance in users and requiring larger and larger doses over time. We should hope for treatments that can yield results with less frequent dosage and lower chance for dependency.

In the drug dealing business cartels always try to wipe out competitors before taking over their markets.

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