Antidepressant pharmaceuticals have long been used to treat anxiety and depression in people with cancer, but what if there were a more natural way to do that? Well, some experts are now pushing towards more research into psychedelics as a treatment option, including LSD, MDMA and of course psilocybin, the psychedelic in magic mushrooms.
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00:00Antidepressant pharmaceuticals have long been used to treat anxiety and depression in people
00:08with cancer.
00:09But what if there were a more natural way to do that?
00:11Well, some experts are now pushing towards more research into psychedelics as a treatment
00:15option, including LSD, MDMA, and of course psilocybin, the psychedelic in magic mushrooms.
00:22In a recent meta-analysis of several clinical trials, researchers discovered that the simple
00:26intake of one of these drugs reduced feelings of depression and anxiety dramatically.
00:30They used Beck's Depression Inventory, or a scale where 0 is no depression and 30 or
00:35more is labeled as severe depression.
00:37The simple intake of one of those three drugs was able to lower depression scores on average
00:41by around 6 points on the scale.
00:43They were also able to lower anxiety markedly as well, decreasing those feelings by an average
00:48of 7 to 8 points on a separate anxiety index.
00:51What's more, psilocybin specifically seems to have lasting effects as well.
00:55In one of the trials, 60% of those who took a single high dose of it were able to enter
00:59clinical remission for their depression, meaning they had a greater than 50% decrease in their
01:03previously measured depressive symptoms, and that lasted for 6 months.
01:08Researchers say there are still some unknowns related to long-term treatment, but add that's
01:11exactly why more research into the healing effects of psychedelics needs to be done.