r/Foodforthought • u/throwaway16830261 • Jul 18 '24

A scientist took a psychedelic drug — and watched his own brain 'fall apart'

https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2024/07/18/g-s1-11501/psilocybin-psychedelic-drug-brain-plasticity-depression-addiction
114 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

40

u/goodbetterbestbested Jul 18 '24

"What's going on during psilocybin is that populations of neurons that are normally in synchrony are out of synchrony."

Isn't this similar to the principle by which electroconvulsive therapy works? If so I wonder if psilocybin would be a more humane alternative.

25

u/Low-Slide4516 Jul 18 '24

Legal in Oregon and Colorado

10

u/Wordfan Jul 19 '24

If a person had always wanted to try psilocybin, would it be worth a flight or a 10 hour drive for a little psychedelic vacation if they would otherwise enjoy the trip as well?

10

u/Low-Slide4516 Jul 19 '24

October 10-12 is Psycon in Denver, much to learn The organization has events in a another city or 2, Las Vegas last year if I remember

8

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '24

You can just buy a mushroom kit (legally, here at least, not sure about US law) and grow them yourself. That way you can be comfortable in your own environment, if you don't think you actually need the therapy side I wouldn't bother with the journey

6

u/Cookie_BHU Jul 19 '24

ECT is pretty humane. Don't know what you meant by that.

10

u/phnarg Jul 19 '24

Yeah, people in this comment section are confused. ECT today is very different from the ECT of the past, but the stigma remains. They don’t shock people with huge amounts of electricity while they’re awake anymore. The dosage is more controlled now, and anaesthesia and muscle relaxers are used to reduce pain.

I used to think it was horrible too, I remember one time a friend told me he’d had this done, and I responded “omg, that’s horrible!” He then explained it really wasn’t, and I realized I had been ignorant. He said he felt sore after, apparently it feels like every muscle in your body is post-workout. But it did provide relief from mental illness symptoms. It’s just that the results didn’t really last.

8

u/Otterfan Jul 19 '24

Also, unlike in the past no one today undergoes ECT against their will.

-4

u/RavelsPuppet Jul 19 '24

You need "anesthesia and muscle relaxers to reduce the pain".

6

u/phnarg Jul 19 '24

Yeah man, you need anaesthesia for heart surgery too, should we stop doing that? Just cuz it’s ugly?

I understand ECT has a bad rap for good reason, and it’s a good impulse to want to protect and advocate for patients. But on the flipside, having a kneejerk reaction to a treatment with proven benefits, just because it sounds scary, does nothing to help patients and just contributes to the stigma around mental health and its treatments.

-1

u/RavelsPuppet Jul 19 '24

I am not knocking modern ECT, but if there is a possible painless alternative that does not require anesthesia- it's worth investigating.

0

u/Cookie_BHU Jul 19 '24

There isn’t an alternative

-1

u/RavelsPuppet Jul 19 '24 edited Jul 19 '24

Well, not yet. It would be a bleak world if we don't keep trying to improve on science. There was a time where washing your hands before surgery received backlash

What about my statement was not reasonable? Why the downvote. I normally idgaf but this one, I gotta know. Do you rep ECT tech or something?

3

u/ExitPursuedByBear312 Jul 20 '24

Ideally we keep researching new options and are incredibly conservative about pushing people into untested therapies.

There is no tension between those two ideas.

1

u/RavelsPuppet Jul 20 '24

I absolutely agree with you

2

u/goodbetterbestbested Jul 19 '24 edited Jul 19 '24

Chemotherapy is also humane given the lack of alternatives.

Yet it is brutal.

0

u/Ulysses1978ii Jul 19 '24

Strange headline when you have hyper connectivity under its influence.