Current Event

“Suicidal Thoughts, Psychological Distress Reduced in People Who Use LSD and Other Psychedelics”

http://www.medicaldaily.com/suicidal-thoughts-psychological-distress-reduced-people-who-use-lsd-and-other-318900

The topic I am responsible for finding current information on are hallucinogens and psychedelics, and this article mainly talks about how research into these types of drugs is being conducted to find out if they have any type of therapeutic potential for humans that may be dealing with mental issues. Recent studies have shown that certain hallucinogens may actually reduce suicidal thoughts and psychological stress. Hallucinogens are a specific group of drugs that can cause a person to hallucinate when they take it and distort their reality. Some of the most common hallucinogenic drugs are lysergic acid diethylamide, which is more commonly known as LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, also known as “shrooms”, and the substance mescaline, which is found in the peyote cactus. Dr. Peter S. Hendricks who is an assistant professor at the University of Alabama’s Department of Health Behavior, stated the suicide rates in this country have been increasing over the years, despite the great advances having been made in the mental health field. He believes the use of psychedelics as a form of treatment might be something that can stop this. Hendricks looked at the responses of about 190,000 people who participated in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health and noticed 19% were less likely to experience psychological stress in the past month, and 36% were less likely to try and commit suicide within the past year. Swiss psychiatrist Dr. Peter Gasser, who conducted a study last year on the topic, found that his terminally ill patients who took LSD in a controlled setting were able to better cope and take control over their anxiety and emotions. He found a 20% reduction in the anxiety levels of these patients and over the course of a year, these specific patients still maintained these lower levels. Psychedelics, including LSD, affect the brain’s serotonin receptors, which then typically causes an increased sense of awareness and perception, hallucinations, altered time perception, and uncontrolled memory retrieval. Sometimes people explain they can actually see their own thoughts and behaviors, and this can allow for an individual who may be thinking about committing suicide, to look at their own situation with a new set of eyes.

In regards to the relevance of this course, it was interesting to see how a schedule 1 drug like LSD and these other hallucinogens are slowly beginning to be looked at in a different way. We learned in class that over time in this country, the attitudes and feelings about certain drugs, like tobacco and alcohol, for example, had changed from initially being looked at as harmful and off limits, to not really being regarded as “drugs”, to now tobacco only really looked at in a negative light. This may begin to happen with the group of hallucinogens if more and more research is going to be conducted into how individuals who have suicidal thoughts, can benefit from their use. It seems like hallucinogens and psychedelics, though maybe not at the same rate, are coming up in the same area as marijuana, as discussion of legalization and its potential medical use are a hot topic in the country today.  If more research is done on this issue, I believe society will no doubt react, as the mindset of many individuals in this country is very permanent despite any new advances being made in our new era. Issues of then having to move the drug from a schedule 1 to a lower level, if the medical use for hallucinogens does become beneficial enough to make legal, are just some of the topics that will surface. If hallucinogens were indeed made medically legal and therefore an individual needed a prescription for it, another possible problem of individuals abusing their prescription in order to just feel high could and most likely would arise, as the abuse of prescription drugs is a high form of drug abuse in our country.