

Research into hallucinogenic drugs begins to shake off decades of taboo - bchjam
http://www.economist.com/node/18864332?story_id=18864332&fsrc=rss

======
Alex3917
"Psilocybin has shown promise in [...] relieving cluster headaches (a common
form of chronic headache) and in alleviating the anxiety experienced by
terminally ill cancer patients."

Cluster headaches are absolutely not a common form of chronic headache. They
are fairly rare, affecting .1% of the population, and are extremely
debilitating; many sufferers commit suicide rather than suffer through the
pain.

Here is an amazing talk by Bob Wold, the guy who founded Cluster Busters, the
non-profit organization that's partnering with Harvard to do the research on
psilocybin as a treatment:

<http://vimeo.com/10918637>

"and in alleviating the anxiety experienced by terminally ill cancer
patients."

Here is the talk by one of the researchers who was testing psilocybin for
treating anxiety due to terminal cancer:

<http://vimeo.com/10931182>

Both are among my all time favorite talks, both are extremely powerful and
moving. I submitted them to TED as potential talks last year, but apparently
no luck so far.

~~~
profquail
I think you misinterpreted the sentence you quoted -- cluster headaches can be
a common form of chronic headache, whilst being rare in the general
population. That is, people suffering from chronic headaches are rare in the
general population but those who are, are likely suffering from cluster
headaches.

~~~
pygy_
Some facts about headaches:

Migraine has a prevalence between 10 and 20%.

The chronology of migraine and cluster headache differs, but they are both
chronic issues.

Untreated migraine attacks last several hours and recur ususally at least once
per month. ~10% of Migraine sufferer end up abusing pain killers, which
increases the attack frequency and leaves them with a permanent, milder
background headache.

Cluster attacks last between 15 and 180 minutes (usually less than 1 hour) and
recur several times per day during several weeks, then remit, only to replase
later on (often at the same period of the week). Hence the name "cluster".

Around 1/1000 cluster patients have "untractable chronic cluster headache", ie
daily attacks without interruptions, that resist to medical treatment. (I
don't remember the prevalence of drug-sensitive chronic CH).

~~~
Retric
There is a wide range of "Migraine" with the most common case being relatively
mild. Migraine headaches can be dull or severe because the term refers to the
symptoms not the severity.

------
daimyoyo
Steve Jobs has said in interviews that his taking LSD as a youth was a life
changing experience for him. I am very much in favor of restarting clinical
trials as long as it's not abused. I think there might be great potential
there and as long as we continue to stigmatize it, we will miss out on any
knowledge we could gain from studying it. And even if it turns out to have no
medicinal value at all, at least we'd know, rather than treating psychoactive
drugs like poison. I mean, we have drugs now for treating fatigue in people
who work long and irregular hours, why can't we at least give these compounds
a real shot at proving whether or not they have value?

------
r22
DMT, which is a natural substance similar to serotonin (and also in the human
body), is one of the most profound spiritual experiences one can have. It is
not like any other drug. It is like opening a door to another dimension.
Here's a great documentary on it -
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc9e7PXsXDE>

~~~
bermanoid
_DMT, which is a natural substance similar to serotonin (and also in the human
body)_

What does the similarity to serotonin have to say in favor of the drug?

If you want to boost your serotonin levels, it's trivial to do so directly by
taking 5-HTP, St. John's Wort, or tryptophan supplements, all of which you can
get at your local pharmacy without a prescription.

And be cautious: excess serotonin in the human body is thought to be bad for
heart health, which is why supplements like 5-HTP are sometimes prescribed
with Carbidopa to slow the 5-HTP -> serotonin transition outside of the brain
(Carbidopa doesn't cross the blood-brain barrier, so 5-HTP -> serotonin is
unchecked within the brain, whereas it's slowed outside of it), so not as much
serotonin ends up in your bloodstream. I have no idea if DMT has similar
heart-unfriendly properties to serotonin, but the point is, saying that it's
similar chemically and that the substance exists in our body doesn't
necessarily mean it's a great thing to take. Our bodies are careful balances
of thousands of different chemicals, and some of them are only there in trace
amounts, it can absolutely be dangerous to throw the balance out of whack
(though if I had to guess, in DMT's case a couple doses is probably not such a
problem).

I'm not necessarily knocking recreational drugs: I've dabbled and enjoyed, but
chemical similarity is _not_ a good enough reason to assume that something is
either safe, effective, or in any way good for you - there are many compounds
that are extremely close to things that we find in our bodies that are very
dangerous.

...which is exactly why we _need_ more legitimate studies on these things,
IMO. I'm glad that the tide is starting to shift on this, we should know a lot
more about the potential benefits _and_ risks of all the substances that
people ingest, whether they typically ingest them for fun, or for health.

------
baconface
Regardless of how effective drugs like LSD and psilocybin are, they make it
difficult to maintain traditional societal hierarchies of power and control
and thus will be stamped out.

~~~
omarchowdhury
I think what OP is saying is that if every single person in a given society
was to take psilocybin/LSD (or psychedelics in general) then that society
would not look like society as it does 'traditionally'. The other posters to
this comment thread ask how "hallucinating" would do this, but they need to
realize that it is not visions or hallucinations that is the variable of
change during episodes of influence under these drugs, but it is the change in
thinking that incorporates the qualities of goodness, unity, beauty, hope,
acceptance (I think all of these words can be compressed into the word 'love')
that would be detrimental to the status quo if everyone were to feel this way.

~~~
derleth
Where is your evidence for any of that?

~~~
anonLSD
I think this is the sort of thing one is meant to consider and reflect upon,
not the sort of thing one subjects to Standard Internet Argument Protocol.

~~~
derleth
So there's no evidence, then.

~~~
omarchowdhury
Evidence for what? The effects produced or how society would change if the
effects (in change of thinking) was prevalent in all the members of the
society?

------
hsmyers
I have never understood the mechanics of 'drug is bad if use equal
entertainment'. It will be interesting to see if the release of this
information and the refereed to thaw in the taboo will lead anywhere...

~~~
sp332
Aren't most recreational drugs addictive and destructive? It's not too hard to
understand why there's a stigma.

~~~
sp332
Wow, that's a lot of downvotes and only one counter-point. What sorts of
recreational drugs are not addictive? And what sorts of drugs will not mess
you up when taken in "recreational" dosages?

~~~
anonLSD
Pot, LSD, and mushrooms, for starters. Except for expansive and distorted
definitions of the word "addictive", and except for that one friend everyone
seems to have who couldn't handle their acid.

~~~
jquery
> that one friend everyone seems to have who couldn't handle their acid.

Do you characterize people with other drug sensitivities as "unable to handle
their [Advil/Codeine/Penicillin/Accutane/etc]" ?

A drug makes 1% or 0.1% of its users go insane can still reasonably be
characterized as very dangerous.

------
rdl
MAPS (maps.org, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) is
one of the best run nonprofits out there (I have donated for years). They have
very low overhead, and in addition to directly funding key research (which is
expensive) have gotten funding from other sources to cover important research
into the use of MDMA and hallucinogens to treat diseases and disorders such as
PTSD.

------
JonnieCache
Rick Doblin, the director of the multidisciplinary Association or Psychedelic
Studies did a talk at google, which you can watch here:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwAGkGpv6Ss>

 _Mainstreaming Psychedelics: From FDA to Harvard to Burning Man_

------
resdirector
A little off-topic but...

This is a very good 60s psychedelic radio station:
<http://www.techwebsound.com/>. Apart from playing very good 60s music, it has
a plays (somewhat ironically) a lot of archive recordings of government
warnings against LSD, mushrooms and other psychedelic drugs.

Interesting to listen to the formings of society's current attitudes towards
drugs.

------
quinndupont
Is there a genuine resurgence of interest in psychedelics in the geek
community, or is it just me? There seems to be a new article posted on HN on
psychedelics every few weeks. Could this be the dawn of a new 1960s?

~~~
Alex3917
"Could this be the dawn of a new 1960s?"

No. In the 1960s psychedelics were part of the counterculture, whereas today
the research and interest is all (purposely) revolving around their potential
as tools for the mainstream. In fact that's probably the biggest thing we
learned from the 60s, is that if we want these substances to be accepted then
we need to integrate them with our existing culture, institutions, and values.
If you go to any of the conferences on the academic research into psychedelics
then one of the first things you'll pick up on is how much most of them hate
Timothy Leary, or at the very least his legacy.

------
politician
I wonder if zombie movies aren't rooted in a parody of governmental fears
about widespread drug use.

~~~
yid
Perhaps put the bong down now? :)

------
drivebyacct2
It's amazing. The more and more research we do, the more we find out that the
FUD surrounding lots of drugs is nothing more than that... FUD.

~~~
sliverstorm
I haven't seen anyone asserting the abuse potential has vanished (or never
existed). They are simply acknowledging there are legitimate uses.

~~~
drivebyacct2
You must have missed the last several drug related posts here on HN. Full of
research on that very topic. And yes, the abuse potential is much lower than
the government would have you believe.

~~~
sliverstorm
Yes, I must have. I certainly don't remember any along that particular topic.

I'd be interested to see them if you still have links.

