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sonoramo
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Single dose of psychedelic drug eased cancer patients' anxiety, depression for years
#26456518 - 01/28/20 09:38 AM (4 years, 1 day ago) |
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Edit : original story link https://www.nbcnews.com/health/mental-health/single-dose-psychedelic-drug-eased-cancer-patients-anxiety-depression-years-n1123451
Note that patients were given synthetic psilocybin, not actual mushrooms.
Here's the abstract from the original 2016 paper (story is about a followup of those patients). The authors are Roland R Griffiths, Matthew W Johnson, Michael A Carducci, Annie Umbricht, William A Richards, Brian D Richards, Mary P Cosimano and Margaret A Klinedinst.
Quote:
Cancer patients often develop chronic, clinically significant symptoms of depression and anxiety. Previous studies suggest that psilocybin may decrease depression and anxiety in cancer patients. The effects of psilocybin were studied in 51 cancer patients with life-threatening diagnoses and symptoms of depression and/or anxiety. This randomized, double-blind, cross-over trial investigated the effects of a very low (placebo-like) dose (1 or 3 mg/70 kg) vs. a high dose (22 or 30 mg/70 kg) of psilocybin administered in counterbalanced sequence with 5 weeks between sessions and a 6-month follow-up. Instructions to participants and staff minimized expectancy effects. Participants, staff, and community observers rated participant moods, attitudes, and behaviors throughout the study. High-dose psilocybin produced large decreases in clinician- and self-rated measures of depressed mood and anxiety, along with increases in quality of life, life meaning, and optimism, and decreases in death anxiety. At 6-month follow-up, these changes were sustained, with about 80% of participants continuing to show clinically significant decreases in depressed mood and anxiety. Participants attributed improvements in attitudes about life/self, mood, relationships, and spirituality to the high-dose experience, with >80% endorsing moderately or greater increased well-being/life satisfaction. Community observer ratings showed corresponding changes. Mystical-type psilocybin experience on session day mediated the effect of psilocybin dose on therapeutic outcomes.
And now, today's story,...
Jan. 28, 2020, 1:30 AM PST By Kaitlin Sullivan
Nearly five years after a group of cancer patients were given a single dose of a psychedelic drug to ease depression and anxiety, new research finds that many of them are still feeling the positive effects.
The patients were among a group of participants who had been given a dose of synthetic psilocybin — the psychedelic compound found in so-called magic mushrooms — in a 2016 study that looked at whether the drug could help with symptoms of cancer-related depression and anxiety. The drug was given in a controlled setting and the patients were monitored the entire time.
As to its effects on anxiety and depression, the psilocybin appeared to work: Eighty percent of the patients reported that their symptoms faded, and the effects lasted six months, the 2016 study found. At the time, this long-lasting effect was a landmark finding.
The new study, published Tuesday in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, followed up with 15 of those patients nearly 5 years later, and found that up to 80 percent were still experiencing significant improvements in cancer-related depression and anxiety. Nearly all of the participants attributed their positive life changes to the psychedelic-assisted therapy.
One of those patients was Dinah Bazer, who was in her mid-60s when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She beat the disease, but in two years that followed, her anxiety skyrocketed.
“I thought that when the chemo ended, I would celebrate but instead, I went into a tailspin. Even though my prognosis was really excellent, I was worried about a relapse,” Bazer said.
After taking the dose of psilocybin though, Bazer said she went through a period of six months feeling no anxiety at all.
Now that five years have passed, Bazer said some of her social anxiety has returned, and that she’s frequently anxious about politics. But one significant change has stuck.
“What is permanent is that I don’t have anxiety about cancer. Not only about my cancer returning, but how I viewed my reoccurrence when it did happen,” said Bazer, who was diagnosed last March with a type of rare gastrological cancer.
This time, Bazer said she wasn’t anxious about seeking a diagnosis or going under the knife. “Mind-boggling” results
Dr. Stephen Ross, director of addiction psychiatry at New York University’s Langone Medical Center who led the 2016 study and co-authored the new research, said the results of the latest study are “mind-boggling.”
“Psilocybin-assisted therapy appears to both work rapidly and have a sustained benefit for years. If other studies support that, the implication is potentially huge for cancer patients,” he said.
Anxiety and depression among cancer patients and survivors is “very common and very consequential,” Ross said. Up to 40 percent of cancer patients develop cancer-related anxiety and depression, according to the study. And the effects that depression and anxiety have on both mental and physical health can be fatal.
“Distress increases rates of suicide and decreases rates of survival by impairing the immune system,” Ross told NBC News. Stunting negative thinking
Although researchers understand some of the ways in which psychedelics like psilocybin affect the brain, they haven’t pinpointed exactly how the drugs are able to help people overcome anxiety and depression. Ross said that he suspects the drugs’ effectiveness stems from the meaningful experiences that patients have while on psychedelics. These often profound or spiritual experiences appear to alter how a person perceives their situation.
“It’s a powerful experience that creates a lasting memory that involves them dealing with the demons of their cancer or their mortality,” Ross said.
According to David Nutt, director of the neuropsychopharmacology unit in the division of brain sciences at Imperial College London, psychedelics also target a specific serotonin receptor believed to be responsible for organized thinking.
“Depression is a state where there is over-organized thinking. People think about themselves repeatedly in a negative way, they get locked into these cycles,” said Nutt, who was not involved with the new research. “Psilocybin disorganizes thinking and allows people, for a period of time, to think differently and break those cycles.”
Nutt’s own research focuses on treating long term depression with psychedelics, something he said is much different than cancer-related anxiety and depression.
“The more ingrained your illness, the more difficult it is to treat,” Nutt said.
While a single dose of psilocybin appears to be enough to provide lasting effects in cancer patients who were suddenly confronted with their own mortality, Nutt said that people with long-term depression would likely need more frequent psychedelic-assisted therapy. Picking up where others left off
The new study builds on a body of research that examines whether illegal recreational drugs could be medically useful. The idea is not new: Studies conducted in the 1950s examined whether psychedelics could ease anxiety and depression in cancer patients.
Ross said his team is trying to pick up where these studies left off. Next, he said, researchers need to conduct studies looking at brain scans taken before and after people are given the psychedelics, and also look for biomarkers that could indicate changes in the body. These future studies could help researchers understand what’s going on in the brain or body to make people feel better, Ross said. The improvement could be the result of tangible changes in brain matter, or may solely be related to the experiences people have while on psychedelics, he said.
Whatever the cause, Bazer said she supports the use of psychedelic-assisted therapy. “My own feelings are that this is a wonderful therapeutic tool and I think it should be available for therapeutic use. If it was, I would seek it out,” she said.
Kaitlin Sullivan is a contributor for NBCNews.com and has worked with NBC News Investigations. She reports on health, science and the environment and is a graduate of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.
Edited by sonoramo (01/28/20 01:14 PM)
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tyrannicalrex
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Re: Single dose of psychedelic drug eased cancer patients' anxiety, depression for years [Re: sonoramo]
#26456820 - 01/28/20 01:04 PM (4 years, 1 day ago) |
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Linkit please!
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sonoramo
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Re: Single dose of psychedelic drug eased cancer patients' anxiety, depression for years [Re: tyrannicalrex]
#26456844 - 01/28/20 01:15 PM (4 years, 1 day ago) |
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PsychoReactive
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Re: Single dose of psychedelic drug eased cancer patients' anxiety, depression for years [Re: sonoramo]
#26458204 - 01/29/20 09:00 AM (4 years, 14 hours ago) |
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Mushrooms make it OK to accept your fate or open your eyes to more treatments that actually work (not kill the patient like chemo).
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TIS87
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Re: Single dose of psychedelic drug eased cancer patients' anxiety, depression for years [Re: PsychoReactive]
#26458588 - 01/29/20 02:03 PM (4 years, 9 hours ago) |
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Quote:
PsychoReactive said: Mushrooms make it OK to accept your fate or open your eyes to more treatments that actually work (not kill the patient like chemo).
Treatments like chemotherapy which saves tons of lives.
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ShroomerInTheRye
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Re: Single dose of psychedelic drug eased cancer patients' anxiety, depression for years [Re: sonoramo]
#26460337 - 01/30/20 02:04 PM (3 years, 11 months ago) |
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It was that 2016 study by Johns Hopkins that helped me overcome a lifetime of suicidal depression. I took shrooms and LSD together. They called mine treatment resistant. The actual term was something like major persistent depressive disorder with melancholic features or dysthymia. I haven't had one suicidal thought or action since December 2016 and I continue to feel better every day. I wrote and illustrated the trip report and it's on Amazon now.
Mushrooms and LSD did not heal me. They simply showed me what was wrong and it was up to me to overcome all of that. I recommend psychedelics to anyone experiencing mental health issues and haven't had much success at all with conventional treatments like I did.
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<-- Clicky Clicky
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tyrannicalrex
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Re: Single dose of psychedelic drug eased cancer patients' anxiety, depression for years [Re: ShroomerInTheRye] 1
#26460377 - 01/30/20 02:26 PM (3 years, 11 months ago) |
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WOW! Please link me to the story.
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DJ Ed
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Re: Single dose of psychedelic drug eased cancer patients' anxiety, depression for years [Re: ShroomerInTheRye] 1
#26460503 - 01/30/20 03:39 PM (3 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
ShroomerInTheRye said: It was that 2016 study by Johns Hopkins that helped me overcome a lifetime of suicidal depression. I took shrooms and LSD together. They called mine treatment resistant. The actual term was something like major persistent depressive disorder with melancholic features or dysthymia. I haven't had one suicidal thought or action since December 2016 and I continue to feel better every day. I wrote and illustrated the trip report and it's on Amazon now.
Mushrooms and LSD did not heal me. They simply showed me what was wrong and it was up to me to overcome all of that. I recommend psychedelics to anyone experiencing mental health issues and haven't had much success at all with conventional treatments like I did.
I read this and instantly felt connected to you. Sending you all my love from the wet and windy UK, and wishing you well on your journey of recovery.
Maybe a précis of your trip report, in the trip report forum 👍🏻
❤️ DJ Ed
-------------------- “It’s like when you see a mountain lion,” he suggested. “If you run, it will chase you. So you must stand your ground.” Michael Pollan: How To Change Your Mind “The problem is not to find the answer, it’s to face the answer.” Terence McKenna

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sonoramo
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Re: Single dose of psychedelic drug eased cancer patients' anxiety, depression for years [Re: tyrannicalrex]
#26460619 - 01/30/20 04:57 PM (3 years, 11 months ago) |
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ShroomerInTheRye
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Registered: 01/12/12
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Re: Single dose of psychedelic drug eased cancer patients' anxiety, depression for years [Re: tyrannicalrex]
#26460708 - 01/30/20 05:53 PM (3 years, 11 months ago) |
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I sent you both a PM with a link to read it. I dunno...the trip report just falls really flat without the art. Like, how do you explain an acid trip that intense to everyone so they can understand it?
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<-- Clicky Clicky
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Doc9151
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Re: Single dose of psychedelic drug eased cancer patients' anxiety, depression for years [Re: ShroomerInTheRye]
#26465664 - 02/02/20 05:18 PM (3 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
ShroomerInTheRye said:
Mushrooms and LSD did not heal me. They simply showed me what was wrong and it was up to me to overcome all of that. I recommend psychedelics to anyone experiencing mental health issues and haven't had much success at all with conventional treatments like I did.
I like what you said above, I believe that psychedelics will help tremendously but there are some Mental disorders that I have seen become exacerbated by psychedelics. Schizophrenia doesn't respond well from what I have seen, several different people known to me exhibited severe suicidal ideation, auditory and visual hallucinations, extreme paranoia and much more. The symptoms I mentioned above didn't only occur during the effects of the mushrooms or LSD but for years after.
Someone very close to me had an unknown family history of schizophrenia and after no more than 5 and no less than 3 total psychedelic experiences, she became full blown schizophrenic. I urge extreme caution if you have history of mental illness, working within a controlled environment with clinical staff would be my recommendation verses self treatment with Leroy from the boondocks.
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  Psilocybe cubensis data collection thread. please help with this project if you hunt wild cubensis. https://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=26513593&page=0&vc=1#26513593
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