Science

Chronic marijuana use in male teens not linked to later issues [according to American Psychological Association]

Bechtold was expecting to find a link between teen marijuana use and a variety of later symptoms. But the study found that both physical ailments (such as cancer, asthma and respiratory problems) and mental ailments (such as lifetime depression and anxiety), were equally likely for non-marijuana users and frequent smokers … the results were published…

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30 years after Prozac arrived, we still buy the [theory] that chemical imbalances cause depression

This doesn’t mean that antidepressants that affect levels of serotonin definitively don’t work—it simply means that we don’t know if they’re affecting the root cause of depression. A drug’s effect on serotonin could be a relatively inconsequential side effect, rather than the crucial treatment. A conglomeration of factors, beginning in the 1960s but having the…

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Baeocystin: an ignored magic mushroom compound

Baeocystin was first isolated by Leung and Paul in 1968 from the mushroom Psilocybe baeocystis (hence the name). Other researchers later isolated it from Psilocybe semilanceata, Panaeolus renenosus, Panaeolus subbalteatus, and Copelandia chlorocystis. Jochen Gartz refers to a report that “10 mg of baeocystin were found to be about as psychoactive as a similar amount of psilocybin.” Although the presence…

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Science

The ensemble/entourage effect in magic mushrooms

In a 1989 paper, the German scientist, researcher, and author Jochen Gartz used keen insight to analyze the data from 24 cases of accidental ingestion of the magic mushroom Inocybe aeruginascens. He also examined data on the effects of ingesting species with high psilocybin and psilocin content. From his analysis, he proposed an entourage effect in magic…

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Phenylethylamine: an… active compound in magic mushrooms

Consider these facts about phenethylamine … [Love-related chemical. Carbon = black hydrogen = white nitrogen = blue] … [The brain’s best known love chemical is phenylethylamine, or PEA. It is a naturally occurring amphetamine. “Love is a drug,” says Helen Fisher, an anthropologist at Rutgers University and author of Anatomy of Love.] It acts as…

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Ketamine: can it really be an antidepressant?

Experts warn that it isn’t necessarily a “miracle cure” – it can come with side-effects and nothing is known about the risks of using it long term. [Afterall], the [patient outcome] results were decidedly mixed and some scientists have pointed out that the FDA relaxed its usual rules for accepting drugs, in order to let…

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FDA approves… [dissociative anesthetic] nasal spray for depression

[The FDA approved spray] is a chemical mirror image of anesthetic ketamine. The treatment comes with a boxed warning — FDA’s harshest — flagging the risk for sedation and difficulty with attention, judgment and thinking, abuse and misuse, and suicidal thoughts after administration of the drug. Original Article (CNBC):FDA approves… [dissociative anesthetic] nasal spray for depressionArtwork Fair Use: Yair…

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