Sunday, November 17, 2019

Is LSD the mental-health wonder drug?

Can LSD help solve mental health issues? - CBS News - Faith Salie:

August 19, 2018 - "Ayelet Waldman is no stranger to drugs.... Diagnosed with a mood disorder, this author and mother of four had tried everything. 'I was profoundly, profoundly depressed, suicidally depressed,' she said. 'I had never been like that in my life.'

'That’s when she turned to ... LSD. In secret, Waldman ... began taking a miniscule amount every three days. It’s called microdosing, and it’s a controversial yet growing trend among the Silicon Valley crowd. But for her, she says, it worked. 'You don’t hallucinate; you don’t see anything unusual,' Waldman said. 'Best way I could describe it, a little more cheerful and a little more effective at work, like, a little more productive.'

"So productive, in fact, she wrote a book about her mind-altering experiment, A Really Good Day. And most importantly, her suicidal thoughts disappeared. But there was a catch: After a month, she ran out of the small supply she had gotten a hold of. And she stopped microdosing. Why? '‘Cause it’s illegal,' Waldman said. 'If it weren’t illegal, I would still be doing it.'

"Taking LSD, even a tiny microdose of it, is still against the law, and potentially dangerous. But once upon a time, LSD and psychedelics like it were considered potential wonder drugs. Throughout the 1940s, ’50s, and into the ’60s, scientists studied them to understand mental disorders like schizophrenia, and to treat anxiety, depression, even alcoholism.

"But when the drugs left the labs and started hitting the streets ... the bad trips and even worse headlines that followed changed their reputation. And then: the Controlled Substance Act led to a more than three decades-long ban on all psychedelic research. Since 2003, however, the FDA has allowed for a few clinical trials of illegal hallucinogens ... like psilocybin, the psychedelic ingredient found in so-called 'magic mushrooms'....

"Dr. Tony Bossis, of New York University  ... along with researchers at Johns Hopkins University, published their findings of what a one-time dose of psilocybin can do to treat anxiety and depression in cancer patients. It was eye-opening. 'In this study, anxiety and depression reduced dramatically, immediately after the experience,' he said.... 'This medicine you take once, it’s out of their system in a few hours. But it generates a three- to four-hour, incredible transcendent experience. And it’s the memory of that experience that recalibrates how they view life and death and their existence, and give you very spiritual insights.'

"If that all sounds a bit far-out, scans have shown psychedelics may increase connectivity among different regions of the brain — areas that normally don’t communicate with each other. 'Maybe it’s time to take a sober, careful, scientific look at these medicines,' Dr. Bossis said, 'to revisit, are they helpful? Are they safe? Are they effective?'

"With more clinical trials on the horizon, researchers hope to open more minds about the potential of psychedelic drugs, one trip at a time."

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/can-lsd-help-solve-mental-health-issues/
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Watch video: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2120149124916986

1 comment:

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