Hacker News Reader

Comment by readthenotes1 | Hacker News Reader

That would be an incredible cure and raises the ethical question of how to get schizophrenic people well enough to understand that they need it.

View on HN

This seems to be mainly about the so called negative symptoms, not positive symptoms (like hallucinations or delusions). While it is often hard to argue with people about their positive symptoms in schizophrenia or in mania, pretty much nobody who has negative symptoms wants to have them. The fact that antipsychotics do little about the negative symptoms is probably the biggest pain of schizophrenia sufferers - and they are aware of that.

Also, and this depends on the jurisdiction, but people can be forced to take psychiatric medication against their will. Or even forced to go through a treatment like ECT, for example when presenting with strong and dangerous mania. BTW, ECT has an extremely unfair popular opinion, it's one of the best treatments in all of psychiatry. It could even be that it is impossible to get a response from the patient, for example if they are catatonic and don't budge within a reasonable time - you just inject them with benzodiazepines, as this is a serious condition if left to last a long time.

ECT just comes across as a bit barbaric. I'd welcome more research into Psilocybin to achieve system reset.

My great friend, when we were 20, shot himself in the head while we were doing shrooms. This is not an uncommon occurrence. Thousands of incidents of self harm happen every year in the US alone because of these drugs.

I would advise anyone against this. Don't believe the weird hype (that mostly all comes from a few small clicks of people looking to profit off this drug) about mushrooms being some spiritual, mental catch all. If you have any sort of mental illness you probably should avoid. Don't play Russian roulette with your sanity.

People do that after getting drunk too.

Depressed people killing themselves as soon as they start to get treatment is a known phenomenon. The energy that comes from treating depression gives them just enough oomph to get to the 'finish line.' It's quite possible they were thinking about it and never told anyone and everyone thinks it's a complete surprise caused by the drug, plenty of people have suicidal ideation or depression while giving zero indication or clues to anyone close to them that would be the case.

Even outside a drug. Breakup happens this can be a result.

Maybe if guns weren’t so accessible people wouldn’t be so quick to use them on themselves in those moments. There’s a statistic out there where a gun in the home is most likely to harm you.

People do try psylocybin, or ketamine, or frankly just about anything. Esketamine even has regulatory approval as a tretment. Research is sometimes posted here on HN. But nothing seems to be as effective as ECT, it truly is the king of affective disorders.

BTW, and not many people know this, it is a procedure performed under full anesthesia, including muscle blockers. From the outside it looks very calm, and from the inside the patient's experience is pretty much identical to taking a nap.

It is not risk free, precisely because of the anesthesia, so in most areas one can only get it if they try enough other treatments - like 2 or 3 or something like that, ideally from different classes of drugs. But definitely do consider this if you're suffering and nothing seems to help (enough).

Psychedelic therapy is unlikely to ever become mainstream treatment for serious mental illness like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. In those cases, it’s significantly more likely to cause more problems than it solves. In general these new faddish psychedelic treatments are mostly effective for bougie mental illness – mild depression, anxiety, stress – but they do not belong in a treatment regimen for serious illness. There is a reason every psychedelic treatment study excludes participants with schizophrenia and bipolar.

ECT might seem barbaric and unsexy compared to dosing some psilocybin and listening to some ambient music in a cozy room, but that doesn’t reduce its clinical value for people with serious, treatment resistant disorders.

You just do your best and leave them alone otherwise.

"Leave them alone" is easy to type into a comment textbox but is much more difficult when it's a neighbor, or a family member, or someone else you have to interact with at a regular interval.

I highly recommend the book Hidden Valley Road for anyone curious about how difficult schizophrenia is for families and the researchers trying to find treatments.

I have two close friends who are schizophrenic and have been psychotic myself. I know what I'm talking about.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com