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"I'm not sure how something like that is supposed to effect my longterm mental health." No one knows. It's one of the biggest and most interesting open questi
by pmoriarty 5y ago
"I'm not sure how something like that is supposed to effect my longterm mental health."
No one knows. It's one of the biggest and most interesting open questions regarding psychedelics: how and why do they work?
What there is a lot of evidence for is that they seem to help a lot of people with very severe depression. The people involved in such studies tend to be ones that have had severe depression for a very long time and have tried many different treatments without success, some including trying electro-convulsive therapy (ECT.. or what used to be known as electroshock therapy), and some of which had had multiple suicide attempts... and psychedelics have helped a significant number of such people -- not everyone, but many.
Another big open question is why it helps some people but not others.
- mjfl 5y agoThe placebo effect has similar outcomes https://www.newscientist.com/article/2269908-benefits-of-microdosing-psychedelic-drugs-may-be-due-to-placebo-effect/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/2269908-benefits-of-mic...
- pmoriarty 5y agoThe article you link to is about microdosing, which is completely different than psychedelic therapy. It is psychedelic therapy, not microdosing, which has had many studies showing a profound positive effect on depression.
- astrange 5y agoKetamine mostly likely doesn't help depression because of being a psychadelic, but rather it's a coincidence that it's a psychadelic. This is much like SSRIs, which also seem to only work as antidepressants as a side effect, not because of messing with serotonin.
- WarOnPrivacy 5y ago> Ketamine mostly likely doesn't help depression because of being a psychadelic You may have this backward. Ketamine might not be a psychedelic drug but can yield similar positive outcomes. ref: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-lucid-mind/202105/how-does-ketamine-work-differently-other-psychedelics https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-lucid-mind/20210...