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Magic Mushrooms 'Reboot' Brain In Depressed People, Study Suggests (theguardian.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Magic mushrooms may effectively "reset" the activity of key brain circuits known to play a role in depression, the latest study to highlight the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics suggests. Psychedelics have shown promising results in the treatment of depression and addictions in a number of clinical trials over the last decade. Imperial College London researchers used psilocybin -- the psychoactive compound that occurs naturally in magic mushrooms -- to treat a small number of patients with depression, monitoring their brain function, before and after. Images of patients' brains revealed changes in brain activity that were associated with marked and lasting reductions in depressive symptoms and participants in the trial reported benefits lasting up to five weeks after treatment.

Dr Robin Carhart-Harris, head of psychedelic research at Imperial, who led the study, said: "We have shown for the first time clear changes in brain activity in depressed people treated with psilocybin after failing to respond to conventional treatments. Several of our patients described feeling 'reset' after the treatment and often used computer analogies. For example, one said he felt like his brain had been 'defragged' like a computer hard drive, and another said he felt 'rebooted.' Psilocybin may be giving these individuals the temporary 'kick start' they need to break out of their depressive states and these imaging results do tentatively support a 'reset' analogy. Similar brain effects to these have been seen with electroconvulsive therapy." The study has been published in Scientific Reports.

11 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. Honest lol by oldgraybeard · · Score: 4, Funny

    That is exactly what I was trying to do 45 years ago ;) lol

    1. Re:Honest lol by PopeRatzo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      First time I tried to do magic mushrooms, the only thing that got rebooted were the magic mushrooms.

      It took a few tries, but I finally got them to work. God, I was so young then.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    2. Re:Honest lol by freeze128 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The first time you use a magic mushroom, it doesn't seem to do much but make you a little bigger. If you take another one after that, then you can shoot fireballs!

  2. Bring it on by SlaveToTheGrind · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Maybe it could help put the brakes on the recent suicide epidemic.

    1. Re:Bring it on by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Maybe it could help put the brakes on the recent suicide epidemic

      I sure hope so. It's a damn shame that research with entheogens was limited (or outright banned) for all these decades. A lot of people might have been helped.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    2. Re:Bring it on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      On one hand, that's true, lives could have been saved if we weren't insistent on imprisoning people for various substances (with the bonus of less social destruction in heavily targeted minority communities). But on the other hand, think of the financial and political gains made by a small elite handful!

      Next you'll be saying that the money spent on the military industrial complex's 'War on Terror' would have been better used developing cures for diseases far more likely to kill you than terrorism or something crazy like that.

  3. My experience by future+assassin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've never done shrooms till about a year ago, done them about 15-20 times. Started off with 1 gram chocolates and took 1/2 of one. When I felt like something after 45+ min I took the other 1/2. There were no hallucinations but you get an almost weed high but really special feeling where feel your surroundings more. If I take them at say at 8pm and don't take anymore after 10pm then I can fall asleep around 2am. Next morning though I feel great and clear brained and no mood swings for a couple of days. Bonus is you can (or at least if worked for me) fuck like a champ and get really horny on them. Now that's with the lower doses. Higher doses right under loosing your ego is still ok not not as enjoyable as your mind wonders too much and at times some darker places and then full trips are meh too taxing on the brain, maybe if I was younger.

    --
    by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
  4. Re:pfft at hippies by Khyber · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ah, look at th' wee lad, LSD. How cute. Come get summa dis DMT when you get another 20 years older.

    --
    Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
  5. A Perfect Moment by Vasheron · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I a had a "perfect moment" on mushrooms. Out on a camping trip with friends, I dropped mushrooms and I looked out over the water and into the sun. All of a sudden everything just seemed to "fit" and I felt a sensation of warmth and wholeness envelope my body. Anxiety, fear, and doubt dropped away and briefly, for the first time in my life I felt completely at peace. I imagine some people search their entire lives for such a moment. It didn't last and, for various reasons, I haven't attempted to duplicate the experience, but I will always remember it.

  6. Re:Fucking assholes by Greyfox · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sure, sure, because Nixon wasn't looking for any excuse he could find to crack down on the blacks and the hippies. And there was no shortage of twatwaffle cronies who were happy to make up whatever bad science the administration wanted to make that happen. And the pharmaceutical companies had absolutely no reason not to do everything in their power to suppress the natural drugs that worked so much better than the shit they were peddling. And not satisfied just to have the USA stick its head up its ass about the subject for the last 50 years, they went out of their way to export their hairbrained policies to the rest of the world. I hope history judges them harshly for the damage they've done, to generations of African Americans and the public well-being as a whole.

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

  7. Brain Help desk by valinor89 · · Score: 3, Funny

    User: My brain seems to be slow and moody as of late.
    Support: Have you tried turning it on and off, sir?
    User: Mmmm