Psychedelics
like psilocybin mushrooms and LSD not only don’t cause mental health
problems, they may actually improve mental health, say Norwegian
researchers.
Those are the
findings by neuroscience researchers at the Norwegian University of
Science and Technology in Trondheim, who reported that LSD, psilocybin
and mescaline not only don’t cause long-term mental health problems, but
that in many cases the use of psychedelics is associated with a lower rate of mental health problems.
The study (here) pulled
data from the US National Survey on Drug Use and Health, observing
130,152 randomly-selected respondents from the adult population of the
US. 13.4% of that group (21,967 individuals) reported lifetime use of
psychedelics. Comparing this data to standardized screening measures for
mental health, the researchers found that neither lifetime psychedelic
use nor use of LSD in the past year were independent risk factors for
mental health problems—and that, in fact, psychedelic users had lower
rates of mental health issues.
Teri S. Krebs and Pål-Ørjan Johansen,
the Norwegian researchers, additionally noted that “psychedelic plants
have been used for celebratory, religious or healing purposes for
thousands of years” and that “psychedelics often elicit deeply
personally and spiritually meaningful experiences and sustained
beneficial effects… LSD and psilocybin are consistently ranked in expert
assessments as causing less harm to both individual users and society
than alcohol, tobacco, and most other common recreational drugs. Given
that millions of doses of psychedelics have been consumed every year for
over 40 years, well-documented case reports of long-term mental health
problems following use of these substances are rare.”
The study also found absolutely no
evidence that “flashbacks” afflict users of psychedelics, slaying
another commonly-held superstition around psychedelic use.
The Norwegian study brings good news for
the over 30 million Americans who have used psychedelics (compared to
100 million who have used marijuana). And while the media has been
buzzing about Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s revelation that he “changed his mind on weed,” it may be time for psychedelics to get a similar PR rehabilitation.
While psychedelics still conjure images of 1960s-era bad trips like Art Linkletter’s daughter jumping out of a window on acid (an overinflated myth, says Snopes),
they have undergone significant research and slow progress towards
clinical acceptance in the past decades. Researchers still labor under
the immensely negative Timothy Leary-era image of psychedelics, but are
steadily chipping away at the cultural deadlock created by what many see
as reckless abuse of psychedelics during the 1960s and 70s. Standing in
stark contrast to the negatives of that time, however, are the immense
clinical benefits that psychedelics are consistently being shown to
offer.
Another recent study at the University
of South Florida, for instance, found that psilocybin mushrooms erase
conditioned fear response in mice, suggesting they could potentially be
used to cure PTSD—and that psilocybin can even prompt growth of brain cells.
Multiple studies are currently being
conducted (at New York University’s medical school and Johns Hopkins
Bayview Medical Center) into using psychedelics to alleviate fear in
patients with late-stage terminal illness—easing the experience of
death and allowing people to end their lives in states of acceptance
instead of terror.
LSD and psilocybin even hold promise for treating cluster headaches, a condition so debilitating and painful that it often leads sufferers to consider suicide.
While marijuana enjoys its time in the
spotlight, it may be time for its more potent—and potentially even more
beneficial—siblings to join the party.
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