[HN Gopher] Psilocybin clinical trial to treat anxiety disorder ...
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       Psilocybin clinical trial to treat anxiety disorder receives
       approval
        
       Author : geox
       Score  : 102 points
       Date   : 2021-11-05 21:28 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.monash.edu)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.monash.edu)
        
       | renewiltord wrote:
       | We are on the cusp of a new Enlightenment post the nightmare of
       | prohibition. MDMA, Ketamine, Psilocybin, LSD are now all
       | available easily, the middle two in good quality to normal
       | people.
       | 
       | I love it. A couple of my friends take this stuff for the mood
       | uplift. Personally, microdosing has never done the trick for me,
       | but a solid 2.5 mg plus is a solid trip that just pushes me into
       | the motivation zone so hard. I usually avoid it because of the
       | length of the trip but hell is it awesome.
       | 
       | Occasionally I leave the Bay Area and am astounded by the degree
       | to which other people like to have Big Government dictate their
       | personal lives. Texas, for instance, blew my mind. It was like
       | taking three steps back from progress. There are trade offs, I
       | know, but for me, my personal individual freedom is paramount.
       | 
       | I love America's federal system. I wish more power would be
       | devolved to the states.
        
         | uptownfunk wrote:
         | Totally 100% agree, Psilocybin is an incredible medicine.
        
         | cyberbanjo wrote:
         | Can you elaborate on how Texas has big gov in peoples life that
         | SFBay doesnt?
        
           | mpalczewski wrote:
           | Both are authoritarian, just depends on if you like left vs
           | right wing authoritarianism.
           | 
           | Texas more strongly limits the drugs you can put in your
           | body. Limits access to abortions. etc...
           | 
           | California limits guns, has vaccine mandates. Limits smoking
           | in your own condo. etc...
        
           | nebula8804 wrote:
           | Under Texas franchise laws, consumers can only buy cars from
           | auto dealers and can't buy them directly from automakers.
           | 
           | As it stands in the Lone Star State, Tesla's company-owned
           | outlets can't legally sell a Tesla in Texas. This is even
           | more hilarious given they are building the Cybertruck in
           | Texas.
        
         | j4hdufd8 wrote:
         | I'm confused, how accessible is this stuff to you? Do you mean
         | black market or prescription?
        
           | jimbob45 wrote:
           | Right there with you. Last I checked, LSD has been extremely
           | scarce since Hardison got snapped up in 2005. Even if you can
           | get your hands on the stuff (or any of the drugs mentioned
           | for that matter), there's still no guarantee that what you're
           | getting is what the dealer says it is.
        
         | piethesailorman wrote:
         | As a proud 4th generation Texan, I would like to say going to
         | California in various ways would strike me as being a place
         | that uses state power in backwards ways as well.
         | 
         | Unfortunately for the both of us, not to speak for anything
         | specifically to California, our states have managed to make
         | some bad decisions. I believe I have standing to speak to
         | recent Texas policy in regard to the recent abortion madness,
         | illegalizing delta-8 THC products etc... sad times indeed.
         | 
         | I am very pro federalism myself, and think that competition of
         | polity would be a great unwinding of federal power. But it
         | seems the iterim is going to be the states fighting against the
         | Fed in extreme ways.
        
         | varispeed wrote:
         | Many people live in mental prison and because they don't know
         | any better, they fear change. They fear that, perhaps they
         | lived majority of their life trapped and only their own
         | ignorance kept them in the cage. They fear to admit that to
         | themselves, they fear the feeling they lost their life to
         | easily preventable pain and misery.
        
         | giantg2 wrote:
         | "Occasionally I leave the Bay Area and am astounded by the
         | degree to which other people like to have Big Government
         | dictate their personal lives. Texas, for instance, blew my
         | mind."
         | 
         | I think it depends on the issues one is using for their
         | perspective. Some people may find CA more oppressive.
        
         | elevenoh wrote:
         | >I wish more power would be devolved to the states.
         | 
         | Doesn't everybody!? Why aren't we seeing more of this
        
       | varispeed wrote:
       | It's crazy that law enforcement actually participates in hounding
       | people who self-medicate rather than going after corrupt medical
       | and political establishment. This completely destroys any trust
       | people have in government, laws and justice. Great that we can
       | see some progress, but I have a feeling that it is only possible
       | because people behind all that corruption finally figured out a
       | way how to monetize it.
        
         | giantg2 wrote:
         | It makes perfect sense once you understand that the system is
         | not about truth, justice, etc. It's about forcing conforming to
         | societal expectations and holding on to or expanding the power
         | society has delegated to them.
        
       | travisd wrote:
       | Just listened to an interesting podcast on psychiatry and
       | capitalism today that mentioned just how desperate big pharma
       | companies are to get their hands on psychadelics. Podcast
       | essentially argues that psychiatry in large part serves to
       | continue enabling capitalism while papering over the people who
       | are incompatible with capitalism via medication. Very interesting
       | pod for sure.
       | 
       | https://www.madinamerica.com/2021/10/can-critiques-psychiatr...
        
       | azinman2 wrote:
       | Title should reflect this is in Australia
        
         | jdavis703 wrote:
         | Meh, these treatments are usually limited duration. Even if
         | this is only ever approved in Oz folks could presumably travel
         | abroad to seek treatment. Folks post US-only things here all
         | the time.
        
           | robbrown451 wrote:
           | Sure but that kind of limits its capacity to make an impact,
           | right?
           | 
           | Pretty much everyone experiences some degree of anxiety. Tons
           | of people here in California, before recreational cannabis
           | was legal, got a medical use permit simply by truthfully
           | telling the teledoc they have anxiety and cannabis might help
           | them with it. Nobody cared whether this anxiety crossed some
           | arbitrary threshold into being a serious medical issue, or if
           | it was just regular old "my life can be stressful, but it
           | sure is nice to relax with a sweet bong hit."
           | 
           | I doubt a single person was turned away because their anxiety
           | wasn't considered "serious" enough, and I'm personally ok
           | with that.
           | 
           | I'd be happy if the same situation happened with psilocybin.
           | 
           | That's a big difference from having to go completely across
           | the world to seek treatment.
        
         | boomboomsubban wrote:
         | Are foreign clinical trials meaningless for FDA approval? I
         | only have knowledge from news stories, but I seem to recall
         | oxycontin using sketchy foreign trials to get approval.
        
       | elevenoh wrote:
       | Psilo + mdma is a more effective way to treat anxiety disorder
       | IME.
       | 
       | Psilo alone can be a little adrenalizing.
        
       | qwerty456127 wrote:
       | I'm pleased the war on drugs and social stigma gradually stops
       | blocking research on psychedelics but I wish they would also
       | study lesser-known substances and compare. E.g. psilocybin (4-PO-
       | DMT) has an interesting synthetic alternative psilacetin (4-AcO-
       | DMT) - I would love to see it as an extra thing they would
       | compare to in such studies.
        
         | lstodd wrote:
         | 5-MeO is also interesting.
         | 
         | https://www.ghres.com/pipeline
        
         | Alex3917 wrote:
         | The issue is that they'd then have to pay for preclinical
         | studies to determine safety, which would add millions of
         | dollars to the budget. Whereas for psilocybin that work was
         | largely done decades ago.
        
         | elevenoh wrote:
         | Distributed anecdotes derisk the lesser known substances before
         | the $ & reputation flow in to study it w/ a hypothesis.
         | 
         | I'm sure it'll happen sooner than later.
        
       | shiado wrote:
       | The worst anxiety I have ever experienced was from a bad trip
       | that caused intense panic and days of anxiety and paranoia after.
       | Can anybody anecdotally attest to psychedelics helping anxiety?
        
         | mysecretaccount wrote:
         | There are already completed studies that show positive impact
         | from psilocybin on anxiety.
         | 
         | My experience as someone who has mild anxiety (and always
         | feared having a "bad trip") was that, though I had some
         | challenging and uncomfortable (but ultimately rewarding)
         | thoughts during the experience, the "afterglow" was a couple
         | weeks of enhanced mood and little-to-no anxiety.
        
       | amelius wrote:
       | Any guesses about how effective this compound will be and to what
       | percentage of patients?
        
         | alexfrydl wrote:
         | Very high percentage. At least in my experience, the effect is
         | NOT subtle.
        
         | seph-reed wrote:
         | Depending on set and setting: anywhere from extremely good to
         | extremely bad. I'm pretty sure they'll be cognizant of creating
         | a positive environment though.
        
         | fuckcensorship wrote:
         | I think there is a high chance that the short-term results will
         | seem miraculous with significant improvements for issues like
         | anxiety and depression but there will be difficulty with
         | maintaining these improvements long-term without continued
         | sessions and therapy.
        
         | mojomark wrote:
         | I highly recommend the documentary "Fantastic Fungi" [1] (2019)
         | to anyone interested in this topic. Can be viewed on Netflix.
         | It will give you a good sense of what's driving the interest in
         | this field.
         | 
         | 1. Fantastic Fungi https://g.co/kgs/1UMWga
        
         | uptownJimmy wrote:
         | Just my own one little bit of anecdata, but I credit my handful
         | of youthful psychedelic experiences with having shown me that
         | it was possible to feel anything BUT anxious and depressed and
         | afraid of the world.
         | 
         | As a young dude with a lot of childhood trauma, it was
         | revelatory and profound to feel peace for a day, to feel the
         | world flow around me with a sense of joy and acceptance.
         | 
         | Hard to say how this will all play out in the coming years, but
         | I am excited to see this stuff getting at least a proper chance
         | at being used to help damaged souls in a therapeutic
         | environment.
        
         | whalesalad wrote:
         | 100%
        
           | neom wrote:
           | 100% is extreme, but I agree that if we're guessing, it will
           | be a high net positive effect to the majority of users.
        
       | WhitneyLand wrote:
       | Are there other promising anxiolytics on the horizon? Even more
       | basic, what are the best options available now?
        
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       (page generated 2021-11-05 23:01 UTC)