Aug. 19, 2013
The use of LSD, magic mushrooms, or
peyote does not increase a person's risk of developing mental health
problems, according to an analysis of information from more than 130,000
randomly chosen people, including 22,000 people who had used
psychedelics at least once.
Researcher Teri Krebs and clinical
psychologist Pål-Ørjan Johansen, from the Norwegian University of
Science and Technology's (NTNU) Department of Neuroscience, used data
from a US national health survey to see what association there was, if
any, between psychedelic drug use and mental health problems.
The authors found no link between the use
of psychedelic drugs and a range of mental health problems. Instead
they found some significant associations between the use of psychedelic
drugs and fewer mental health problems.
The results are published in the journal PLOS ONE and are freely available online after 19 August.
Symptoms and mental health treatment considered
The researchers relied on data from the
2001-2004 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, in which participants
were asked about mental health treatment and symptoms of a variety of
mental health conditions over the past year. The specific symptoms
examined were general psychological distress, anxiety disorders, mood
disorders, and psychosis.
Armed with this information, Krebs and
Johansen were able to examine if there were any associations between
psychedelic use and general or specific mental health problems. They
found none.
"After adjusting for other risk factors,
lifetime use of LSD, psilocybin, mescaline or peyote, or past year use
of LSD was not associated with a higher rate of mental health problems
or receiving mental health treatment," says Johansen.
Could psychedelics be healthy for you?
The researchers found that lifetime use
of psilocybin or mescaline and past year use of LSD were associated with
lower rates of serious psychological distress.
read full article here
Psychedemia
Psychedemia; Exploring The World Behind The Trip
“Today a young man on acid
realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration.
That we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively.
There is no such thing as death, life is only a dream and we are the
imagination of ourselves.
Here’s Tom with the weather” ~ Bill Hicks
Today I was browsing Facebook and I came
across a video about an academic conference on psychedelics, called
Psychedemia. This video gives an hour long overview on the subjects
which were discussed during the conference. To sum up in their own
words:
Psychedemia is an academic conference
hosted at the University of Pennsylvania from September 27-30, 2012.
This conference will feature university scholars and researchers from
across the country in the fields of medicine, psychology, neuroscience,
ethics, rhetoric, and anthropology to discuss recent ideas and
discoveries in psychedelic studies. Researchers will be brought together
with clinicians and professionals in interdisciplinary symposia that
will explore an array of culturally-pertinent subjects. Psychedemia
A lot of different speakers are shown in
this documentary; the documentary was created to give an overview of the
conference which lasted for 4 days. But although you see a lot of short
clips, the overall result is very interesting to say the least. The
medical, ethical and philosophical implications can be huge, if
psychedelics were allowed back into the mainstream. And a lot of
questions I have asked myself are raised at the end of the documentary.
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