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

[shireen]

(19.08.2013) 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.

more at
http://www.ntnu.edu/news/2013-news/lsd-survey

[gtar100]

1. But then explain why this thought never occurred before when there wasn't

the place for it to be when it all turned a bright blue and then disappeared. Just like that.

--As told by a brain fried on LSD.

Moderation is always the key!

[David__77]

2. Well that's a relief.

This is entirely unsurprising to me as far as the longer-term is concerned. I do think that LSD can inspire "regression" over the shorter term.

[Warpy]

3. They did a study some years ago

and found the only difference between old acidheads and the control group of random people is that the acidheads tended to gravitate to a specific category of occupation, the caring occupations in health care and hands on occupations rather than business oriented occupations dealing with numbers and abstract items.

I don't find that a bad thing, not at all.

Most of the nurses I worked with had colorful substance abuse histories. All but two managed to walk away from it.

[napoleon_in_rags]

4. That's really interesting.

The stereotype is there, but I wonder if the anecdotes don't come from people drawn to the a mind altering substance because they have pre-existing problems with their minds.

I think there is a role for psychedelics in controlled settings for therapeutic purposes, but not as general recreational drugs. Tripping should be for a purpose.