zaterdag 12 oktober 2013

LSD and Other Psychedelics Not Linked With Mental Health Problems, Analysis Suggests

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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