If Anti-Depressants Aren't Your Thing, Hallucinogens Might Be An Option
Drop your shrink and some trippy psychedelics.
Depression is a mental illness that's as complex as it is common. It affects 14.8 million adults in the U.S., but treatment options are often difficult to navigate. They require a lot of experimentation and patience, which makes a lot of people less likely to seek treatment.
A recent study published in Lancelot Psychology Journal has found an unconventional treatment option for depression sufferers. Researchers at London Imperial College have found that high doses of psilocybin, which is found in magic mushrooms, can help to eliminate the symptoms of depression. Before you start picking through cow paddies for mushrooms, here's what you need to know about this new discovery.
10 to 30% of people with depression have found the illness to be treatment-resistant or have seen a minimal reduction in symptoms as a result of taking medication.
Thankfully, this new study may have found the solution in an unlikely place.
London Imperial College researchers administered high doses of psilocybin to 12 participants who previously have found no relief when trying conventional treatment methods.
After one week, every participant in the study reported that they no longer felt depressed and they continued to be symptom-free for another three months. Although this is an exciting discovery, researchers realized that the study itself was extremely limited, as they had a low number of participants and could not test them against a placebo group. Still, this could be the start to the development of a treatment option for those who haven't found help through any other method.
The researchers believe that the drug disrupts the Default Mode Network, an area of the brain that is overactive in depressed people.
They have yet to rule out that a drug-induced spiritual experience, and subsequent change of perspective, is responsible for the participants' disappearing depression.
You shouldn't dump your therapist just yet.
The study authors, and most medical professionals, warn that people shouldn't seek out such unconventional methods on their own expecting the same results.
"I wouldn't want members of the public thinking they can treat their own depressions by picking their own magic mushroom," said lead study author Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris. "That kind of approach could be risky."