Magic Mushrooms Improve Brain Connections to Ease Depression
bloomberg.com
bloomberg.com
- Predictable criticisms: Small study, but these small studies keep finding the same things so I hope someone is able to get a Big study funded, the beacons of light in the distance are necessary stepping stones to get backing for the bigger ones
- Predictable criticism, or clout: Imperial College of London doing the study. Although probably very prestigious, they've overplayed their hand before but that's likely politician and media's fault in basing public policy off of rushed preliminary studies.
There is a class of psychoactive compounds (psilocybin is one of them) which, from what we can currently tell, increase neuroplasticity in the brain at least to a degree.
This has not just been studied with depression and so on, but with a wide range of phenomena where we've known that relative rigidity (compared to our childhood) of our brain stood in the way of one thing or another. One example that always comes to mind is this study on learning perfect pitch (something that is widely considered to be picked up in early childhood for one reason or another, and if you didn't get it, you're out of luck): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3848041/
The problem with neuroplasticity is that it doesn't just open up your brain to be reprogrammed in positive ways. This is why self-treatment with magic mushrooms and so on can actually be a damaging effort and you should instead try to find a psychotherapist who either specializes in this sort of treatment (if you can find one) or at least one who is willing to assist you along the way.
If you know people who do drugs recreationally you probably know at least one story of someone who took some drug and induced some kind of psychosis with lasting aftereffects, and those kinds of events are probably related to this.
The studies right now can only chisel ever so slightly at the anecdotes that the recreational community repeat, a community often known for victim blaming anyone that has a bad experience.
We simply don't have any reputable data yet, to the standards of other legal drugs and treatments. I would like to see us get there. But that means each dose type has to be studied for each proposed treatment type (recreational, depression, creativity, performance at your tech job etc), each form of consumption (stem, fine grain, tea, etc) has to be studied for each proposed treatment type (recreational, depression, creativity, performance at your tech job etc).
And that's likely going to take decades.
But for everyone else that chooses to use or grow them, caution is the word! And you basically do have to rely on a consensus of anecdotes and what will most likely allow you to have a redeeming experience.
THank you for your concern, but after 23 different pharmaceuticals with wildly varying, and oftentimes detrimental effect, I no longer have the patience. I strongly urge people who have severe depression to investigate psilocybin treatment, whether self or through a medical provider. ASAP.
I also learned that there is now a Ketamine nasal spray that is showing amazing benefits of depression, and is now being covered by insurance.