Forscher fanden heraus, dass Psychedelika bei der Bekämpfung von Depressionen nicht besser wirken als herkömmliche Antidepressiva, wenn Patienten genau wissen, welches Medikament sie einnehmen. Die Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass der klinische Vorteil von Psychedelika eher auf das Studiendesign als auf die pharmakologische Wirkung zurückzuführen sein könnte.
https://www.technologynetworks.com/tn/news/psychedelics-show-no-advantage-over-antidepressants-410814
16 Kommentare
Are you really taking a psychedelic if you can’t tell if you’ve taken a psychedelic or not?
Edit – apologies, I completely missed this big chunk of the article „Double-blinding in psychedelic trials is more difficult—it is nearly impossible to hide the fact that a patient has received a potent hallucinogen“
The no-cebo effect isn’t disappointment at being in the placebo group. It’s when something harmless causes harm because of the power of suggestion (like if people are told ‘you may experience headaches as a side effect of being given this substance’ and get a headache though they’re in the group that **didn’t** get the substance). Was this article written by AI?
I also wonder if they compared types of interventions that people got when they participated in the trials (ie, sitting with blindfolds and music through headphones, or group work, or a day of therapy, etc).
I strongly believe that the anti-depressant effects of psychedelics aren’t fully „pharmacological“… its due to the conscious experience you have while on psychedelics. A good psychedelic experience is akin to therapy in itself. Yes, there is a pharmacoligical reason as to why you are able to have those experiences while on psychedelics, but its not just ‚take some mushrooms and you’ll automatically feel better’… you can take psychedelics in the wrong setting and make things worse, you can take them in the right setting and make things better. Its not just what theu donto your brain chemistry, its what you do with your brain while the chemistry is altered that causes the effect.
This is brilliant, I’m a big fan of more research into alternatives to antidepressants. I have a dear sister who’s been taking antidepressants for over 20 years, she’s a shell of her former self but she can’t stop the antidepressants. I wish she’d tried psilocybin before going down the dark road she’s currently on
I get the benefits without the various side effects though
If they do as much as literal anti depression pills than clearly it’s working in a much healthier way?
I think we need more information about the study designs they’re using for meta-analysis.
As others have mentioned, a huge portion of the psychedelic’s impact on depression isn’t just chemical – its the therapeutic, mystical experience it can provide and the connection it can reinforce to long-term spiritual practices that support well-being on the multi-year time scale.
PAT without using it as an initiatory experience to cultivate a personal practice is missing the point of the use of the substance.
What’s also not addressed (in the abstract) are the significant negative side-effects associated with long term anti-depressant use vs. the extremely low rate of negative side effects for controlled acute psychedelic use. Anti-depressants are less effective long term than simple exercise.
Uh can we talk about the efficacy of antidepressants compared to placebo first?
Bad faith study. This is not a 1v1 comparison at all. The physiological and pharmacological mechanisms of psychedelics and antidepressants are very different. Forget about the wildly off dosing (specifically for psychedelics) and lack of importance of intent considerations in this ‘study’, which was just a literature review of other trials aggregated under one false equivalency assessment, not an actual clinical study.
Comparing the effect of psychedelics and medication seems easier said than done.
Anyway, if you have an effect any way comparable to standard antidepressants without actively being on any kind of drug, isn’t that significant, and preferable?
One of the most profound effects of psychedelics is how suggestible they make you. I don’t mean that inherently as a negative towards potential benefits. If it works, it works.
If you go into a psychedelic experience wanting to change some aspect about yourself, say to ‚correct‘ your depressed mind, stop smoking etc, you may well be able to.
I suppose they let you understand things in entirely new ways and this in itself can be very therapeutic to realise that negative thinking is not really how everything ‚is‘, but just your individual perception.
Mushrooms just give you a different perspective while you’re on them, then intermittently for a few days afterwards.
I use them to get out of negative thought patterns, and when I go through major life transitions. Always been helpful for me, although I know many people who derive zero benefit from mushrooms.
Not better than common anti-depressants on an individually consistent level or generalized outcome?
Because I feel like they might work for some and not for others, but it might work better for someone for whom common anti-depressants aren’t working.
How much more effective are antidepressants than placebo? Like 10%
Perhaps this is an indicator that mental health is completely misunderstood by modern science.
Isn’t this known already? Phase 2 trials always set the best conditions for success. When you move to phase 3 and allow more patients, the good results gets averaged away in a larger patient population.
I have used both in the past, the psychedelics were great, the other crap messed me up.