
Magic mushrooms may 'reset' the brains of depressed patients - slamdance
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-10-magic-mushrooms-reset-brains-depressed.html
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sbinthree
The disturbing aspect of depression treatments that "reset" things is the
meaning of reset at a nervous system level. In a lot of cases, that basically
means "memory smoothing" or "neuron unlearning". Imagine how great it would be
if all your traumatic memories felt mild or you forgot them entirely? Consider
the downside of that with respect to positive memories. Especially those nice
feelings you get when you conquer something was previously impossible or very
hard for you. SSRIs do this even more aggressively. Most of the time negative
memories are easier to recall than positive ones. Unlearning negative memories
can have really weird and bad consequences though in the context of learning.
Presumably at least a percentage of negative learning is useful. That goes
away when you "reset" your neurons in this manner.

~~~
serf
from the article:

 _" In a paper, published today in the journal Scientific Reports, the
researchers describe patient-reported benefits lasting up to five weeks after
treatment, and believe the psychedelic compound may effectively reset the
activity of key brain circuits known to play a role in depression."_

 _" Functional MRI imaging revealed reduced blood flow in areas of the brain,
including the amygdala, a small, almond-shaped region of the brain known to be
involved in processing emotional responses, stress and fear. They also found
increased stability in another brain network, previously linked to
psilocybin's immediate effects as well as to depression itself."_

The phrase 'reset' is being bandied around a lot, but it sounds like the scope
of the therapy is much smaller than the concept of 'resetting your brain'. Not
to say that there isn't a negative impact like you say, but I think the
compartmentalization of the brain is more complicated than "good memory/bad
memory".

Imagine a drug that just reduced the impact of memories with (for lack of a
better wording) 'chemical metadata' categorized as being a negative experience
or negative feedback. That seems to be the goal with these types of research
into the chemical intervention of PTSD and depression.

> _Presumably at least a percentage of negative learning is useful. That goes
> away when you "reset" your neurons in this manner. _

Well, maybe not. The learning that was the result of using the negative
feedback is already in-place. It may be more difficult in the future to recall
the negative feedback that lead to the learning taking place, but I have a
hard time thinking that all the learning that is a result of that negative
feedback will be nullified post-facto, since it was already positively
reinforced.

I guess we'll see!

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shallot_router
The key point from the paper [1]:

>Decreased depressive symptoms were observed in all 19 patients at 1-week
post-treatment and 47% met criteria for response at 5 weeks.

Small sample size, but definitely an interesting result. I was hoping they'd
test again after a few months have passed, though.

[1]
[https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-13282-7](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-13282-7)

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trapperkeeper74
Fuck, I’d try this right now. Just stopped mirtazepene because it was less and
less effective. Now I’m back to the black dog. I know of a university in the
US that has someone with the even more magical DEA exclusion certificate,
wouldn’t trust informal economy’s supply-chain.

~~~
aaroninsf
Fwiw, at least in the places I've lived in the US,

The informal supply chain for such things is usually well established, and
easy to find (and triangulate) quality within.

These mushrooms grow readily and in many places naturally in abundance (though
as with all mushrooms of course you wouldn't want to pick them without being
certain of your own abilities).

Erowid.org is a great resource for self-education btw.

