

Psychedelics not linked to mental health problems or suicidal behavior - alexcasalboni
http://jop.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/02/25/0269881114568039.full

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jeremysmyth
From the abstract: "After adjusting for [factors including] childhood
depression, we found no significant associations between lifetime use of
psychedelics and increased likelihood of [mental health problems in the past
year]."

Yet: "Psychedelic users were more likely than non-users to report a depressive
episode before age 18."

Taken together, these are curious findings, because they're deliberately
ignoring something that turned out to be a clear correlation, even one that
might be the result of a causality in the reverse direction to one that might
be otherwise presumed.

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throwawayaway
Under "Limitations", just reading this now:

"People who choose to use psychedelics might have better initial mental health
before using psychedelics, and people who experience problems apparently
related to psychedelics may choose to not use them again."

Psych ward patients who got there via psychedelics wouldn't be included in the
study also.

What is written in their abstract seems irresponsible in the extreme, given
the above limitations:

"We failed to find evidence that psychedelic use is an independent risk factor
for mental health problems. Psychedelics are not known to harm the brain or
other body organs or to cause addiction or compulsive use; serious adverse
events involving psychedelics are extremely rare. Overall, it is difficult to
see how prohibition of psychedelics can be justified as a public health
measure. "

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cyrusaf
I think it has to do a lot with moderation. If someone is going to take full
doses of psychedelics multiple times per week, I have no doubt in my mind that
they could go through serious mental health issues. But that is not to say
that occasional use is very safe. In fact, occasional use can be extremely
helpful to many people.

I'm curious as to what the effect of frequent micro-dosing is...

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jeremysmyth
_If someone is going to take full doses of psychedelics multiple times per
week, I have no doubt in my mind that they could go through serious mental
health issues._

Why? There is nothing in the report to support that viewpoint, and quite a few
points that contradict it to some extent.

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ParanoidShroom
Because you brain needs a rest from that flood of information. You'll go mad
just as you'll go mad if you stop sleeping.

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semerda
The brain is extremely active while you sleep. The brain never rests. It is
always active. The question is how active is it under different situations.
The brain can't tell if the information it is receiving is from a real visual
experience or a psychedelic. I'm sure stress does more damage than a
psychedelic experience and we experience that daily in business/startups et
al.

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throwawayaway
ah my mental health problems and suicidal behaviour must have been a
coincidence, good.

> we found no significant associations between lifetime use of psychedelics...

does lifetime use mean ongoing or once off?

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jeremysmyth
From the article: "We counted participants as having any lifetime psychedelic
use if they reported use of LSD, psilocybin, mescaline or peyote."

This is pretty typical use of the term. They also distinguished it from "past
year use" for LSD.

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throwawayaway
so i would count as lifetime use, i did them a few times, developed mental
health problems and stopped as a result. my mental health problems cleared up
within a year. now i don't have mental health problems. i would hardly say on
the basis of my experience that psychedelics are safe.

i know people who took many times longer to recover. the report seems to imply
that my experience is just a coincidence. i doubt i would have developed the
mental health problems without psychedelics.

the report looks at lifetime use but past year mental health problems, which
means you can't say "Psychedelics not linked to mental health problems or
suicidal behavior" you have to qualify it by saying "past year".

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tmikaeld
So glad that there is finally a study that proves this as a fact.

