Psychology

Can ‘magic’ mushrooms ease the pain of rejection?

“Lead researcher Katrin Preller of the University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich explained that psilocybin has much more specific targets than antidepressants currently on the market.” It’s too small of a study to draw any strong conclusions from, and the participants were all healthy — they didn’t actually suffer from severe social anxiety or depression. But…

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Psychology

Stop the treatment industrial complex

“Mass incarceration is a moral abomination that must be acknowledged, repudiated and unraveled. Prison-like treatment facilities such as forensic psychiatric hospitals and civil commitment centers are also growing in both number and enrollment. Government statistics suggest that employment in these areas will increase by 22.8 percent by 2022.” …a new system has emerged that bears…

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Psychology

They are listening

In late 2015, Sen. Sara Gelser, D-Corvallis, and Oregon Health Authority Director Lynne Saxton traveled the state to hear from adolescents, adults and families who have had difficulties accessing mental health and substance use disorder treatment in Oregon. They heard from approximately 550 consumers and family members over the course of seven town hall meetings…

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Psychology

The Hopes and Fears of Psychedelic Science

“The team at Imperial that I am a part of, led by Dr Robin Carhart-Harris and Professor David Nutt, will shortly publish results of the first trial of psilocybin assisted psychotherapy in treatment resistant depression. Robin explains to Jamie that 2/3 of the patients in the study were depression free after 1 week, with 42%…

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Psychology

So what happens when teen pot smokers get older?

“There were no differences in any of the mental or physical health outcomes that we measured regardless of the amount or frequency of marijuana used during adolescence.” After tracking more than 400 men from their teenage years to their mid-30s, the scientists say chronic marijuana use does not lead to later physical and mental health…

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Psychology

Tripping with Buddha

The main issue here is: Does psychedelic use lead to harming others? Does it lead to carelessness and heedlessness? Do we start disrespecting others through having altered our mind in this way? So if we do use psychedelics, this would be the bottom line: Is it harmful to others or harmful to ourselves? Original Article…

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Psychology

No Link found between Psychedelics and Psychosis

“We are not claiming that no individuals have ever been harmed by psychedelics,” says author Matthew Johnson, an associate professor in the Behavioral Pharmacology Research Unit at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. “Anecdotes about acid casualties can be very powerful — but these instances are rare,” he says. At the population level, he says,…

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Psychology

Psychedelic studied as treatment from alcoholism

“Dr. Michael Bogenschutz, a psychiatrist at UNM School of Medicine, said he is studying the use of psilocybin — the active psychedelic compound in many species of hallucinogenic mushrooms — for the treatment of alcohol abuse and addiction”. The study of this use of psilocybin is still in its early stages, but Bogenschutz said that…

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