Mind-altering drugs like LSD, ketamine or magic mushrooms could be combined with psychotherapy to treat people suffering from depression, compulsive disorders or chronic pain, Swiss scientists suggested on Wednesday.
Research into the effects of psychedelics, used in the past in psychiatry, has been restricted in recent decades because of the negative connotations of drugs, but the scientists said more studies into their clinical potential were now justified.
The researchers said recent brain imaging studies show that psychedelics such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), ketamine and psilocybin -- the psychoactive component in recreational drugs known as magic mushrooms -- act on the brain in ways that could help reduce symptoms of various psychiatric disorders.
The drugs could be used as a kind of catalyst, the scientists said, helping patients to alter their perception of problems or pain levels and then work with behavioral therapists or psychotherapists to tackle them in new ways.
"Psychedelics can give patients a new perspective -- particularly when things like suppressed memories come up -- and then they can work with that experience," said Franz Vollenweider of the Neuropsychopharmacology and brain imaging unit at Zurich's University Hospital of Psychiatry, who published a paper on the issue in Nature Neuroscience journal.
Depending on the type of person taking the drug, the dose and the situation, psychedelics can have a wide range of effects, experts say, from feelings of boundlessness and bliss at one end of the spectrum to anxiety-inducing feelings of loss of control and panic at the other. ...
via NewsDaily: Scientists suggest fresh look at psychedelic drugs.
Could help, could hurt. You have a problem with the mind, so you give the mind something known to cause a change... but you don't really know what that change will be.
4 comments:
I had a friend that took shrooms and had no feeling of pain . When stuck in the hand with a pin there was no discomfort . When hit hard enough on the arm to create a large muscle contraction ( Charley horse ) still no pain or discomfort . Sense of touch was slightly diminished . Some numbness . Bodily control pretty normal . Some hallucinations though ;-) Best pain killer on the planet ! Better then Morphine ! Less side effects , I hear ;-}
Do you think it would have the same effect on everyone? Was it functioning in this case to manifest the power of suggestion?
There were others at the time that took the same mushrooms that didn't seem to have the same pain free effect . At other times the same mushrooms didn't exhibit the effect on the same person . I can't explain why the effect was only on one or two occasions in one individual and not the others .Possibly a different type of mushroom found it's way into a batch ? I don't think it was put forth by the power of suggestion ( placebo effect ) The lack of pain reception was only noted by accident . Then only tested after the effect was discovered . Think of the prospects of a pain killer more powerful than Morphine with little side effects and easily produced . The mushroom type was Psilocybe semilanceata (liberty cap) very common in a lot of places . I think that mushrooms are being neglected as far as their potential for pharmaceuticals .
Thanks for this reply. It does sound worth exploring. Neat.
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