Community | August 24, 2010 | 17 comments

Can psychedelic drugs treat depression?

source: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/08/24/psychedelic.drugs.depression/index.html?hpt=Sbin

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http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/08/24/psychedelic.drugs.depression/ind...

- Pamela Sakuda, 57, was anxious and depressed. After two years of intensive chemotherapy for late-stage colon cancer, and having outlived her prognosis by several months, she'd finally lost hope. She was living in fear and was worried how her impending death would affect her husband.

Sakuda's doctor prescribed antidepressants, but they didn't do any good. So, at her wits' end and feeling that she had nothing to lose, Sakuda volunteered for an experimental depression treatment being studied at UCLA.

In January 2005, with a pair of trained therapists at her side, Sakuda took a pill of psilocybin -- a hallucinogen better known as the active ingredient in "magic mushrooms."

It may seem far-fetched that a psychedelic drug associated with muddy hippies at Woodstock would help a cancer patient at a university hospital. Yet it's an increasingly familiar scene.

Although mind-bending drugs such as psilocybin are still used most often by people looking to get high, researchers around the country have begun to explore whether these and other illegal drugs can help treat intractable depression, anxiety, and other mental-health problems.
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17 comments // Can psychedelic drugs treat depression?

  • ScratchyPants
    • 0
      ScratchyPants  

    • I think one of the biggest things to worry about by taking drugs like this to alleviate anxiety, depression, etc would be the intensification (or possibly the onset) of paranoia. Jeez..... that's a "bad trip" times 1000!!

    • 2 years ago
  • dreamsenvoy
  • ozoneocean
    • 0
      ozoneocean  

    • There's good and bad, as some others have said.
      They're like any treatment really: when a perfectly healthy person is given a powerful, effective medication that is meant to treat a problem they don't have, the consequences could be quite negative. When the medication is used correctly on someone that does need it however, the consequences are better.

      There are many instances of people suffering psychological damage and other consequences from taking these sorts of narcotics. It's good to see that the stigma resulting from that isn't hampering further research into what they might be GOOD for.

      There are literally no magic pills. Nothing is right for everyone.

    • 2 years ago
  • cadex
    • +1
      cadex  
    • Image

    • For more information on the use of psychedelic substances to treat those suffering from post traumatic stress, depression, substance addiction and many other damaging psychological issues please visit this website - http://maps.org/

      Remember, there is nothing inherently bad about a drug and just because it is illegal and surrounded by cultural stigma does not mean that it cannot be beneficial to society or help people improve their lives. We have only just started to discover what these drugs can do for us and we can unlock the potential for good in these substances with more research.

      When you use a drug correctly it is not a narcotic, it is a medicine.

    • 2 years ago
  • dreamsenvoy
  • Omnomynous
    • +4
      Omnomynous  

    • Well I've heard and known of people using psychedelics and having both good and bad experiences.

      There is little cut and dry good or bad, one clear cut observation; over use of any psychedelic is bad.

      Then again under proper guidance, or maybe an intelligent or group of intelligent persons with a good understanding of the drug they are using can have wonderful therapeutic results.

      For you "nay sayers" look it up on your own, there have been plenty of studies published by doctors some even preformed without preconceived notions coming into play.

    • 2 years ago
  • kurutonio
    • -2
      kurutonio  

    • no, and not everybody;

      psillocybin like lsd and so on cause post devastating effects on human organic chemistry at the open chain level, I guess in a terminal patien, after years of treatments, humans are used as a " medicine " animals;

      all is due in the name of the science

    • 2 years ago
  • cadex
    • -1
      cadex  
    • kurutonio:

      I'm finding it hard to work out what you're trying to say here. What are these "post devastating effects on human organic chemistry"? If you're serious about your statement then you'd back this up with some proof.

    • 2 years ago
  • kurutonio
    • 0
      kurutonio  
    • Image
    • cadex:

      ok, I will try but for a better understanding you need to consult a more updated doc, me myself nowadays is not enough;

      we are chemistry, our system is made by four chemical substance:
      A nucleotide is composed of a nucleobase (nitrogenous base), a five-carbon sugar (either ribose or 2'-deoxyribose), and one to three phosphate groups. Together, the nucleobase and sugar comprise a nucleoside. The phosphate groups form bonds with either the 2, 3, or 5-carbon of the sugar, with the 5-carbon site most common. Cyclic nucleotides form when the phosphate group is bound to two of the sugar's hydroxyl groups. Ribonucleotides are nucleotides where the sugar is ribose, and deoxyribonucleotides contain the sugar deoxyribose. Nucleotides can contain either a purine or pyrimidine base.

      Nucleic acids are polymeric macromolecules made from nucleotide monomers. In DNA, the purine bases are adenine and guanine, while the pyrimidines are thymine and cytosine. RNA uses uracil in place of thymine, any and I mean any other substance will influence those, with unknow collateral effects, nobody knows because the percentage of adenine,guanine,thyamineand cytosine is in one way different from one to another ; only one picture can go but you can find yourself from internet much more

    • 2 years ago
  • cadex
    • 0
      cadex  
    • kurutonio:

      Okay so most of that information was lifted straight from the Nucleotide wikipedia page apart from the part about "any and I mean any other substance will influence those, with unknow collateral effects, nobody knows because the percentage of adenine,guanine,thyamineand cytosine is in one way different from one to another ".

      So if absolutely any other substance can cause unknown collateral effects, and there is no way of knowing if these substances have had an effect on the production of RNA / DNA then how can you be sure that these psychedelic substances have any negative effects at all? And if it is any substance at all then why single out psychedelics as being in any way more damaging than any other drug out there?

      The thinking behind the idea that LSD and other psychedelics detrimentally interfere with the chemical structure of humans could be due to the 1972 report into LSD and chromosomal damage, which in fact came to the conclusion that there is no link between LSD and chromosome breakage. Despite the findings in the report an urban myth was started that has perpetuated through the decades, but is in fact baseless.

    • 2 years ago
  • kurutonio
    • 0
      kurutonio  
    • cadex:

      yea, it has been the fastest way to open my point since the language barrier;
      if you go on you may discover that every single chemistry substance influence the brain and the receptors cells in a different way, lysergic acid, psyllocibin, mdam, mescaline,
      and so on;
      in thailand there is a pill called yaaba it makes people crazy and when those people wake up from the trip and relize what they have been doing, car accidents, go around with motorbike and a long katana and more, they canot believe it;
      the so called " natural " drugs heroin, oppium, cocaine, cannabis works in a different way;
      our point however was if psycadelic pills are ok for depressed people, my point is : no !

    • 2 years ago
  • OrbViper
    • +4
      OrbViper  

    • They knew drugs like LSD could do this over 50 years ago, but because of media hype and such they were made illegal and now people who actually need them can't get them. Time for the government to make drugs policy that has some element of common sense and got their head out of their arses.

    • 2 years ago
  • CarolineS
  • Nick_sears
  • cynker
  • Robotic091
  • OrbViper

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