Study: Psilocybin Relieves OCD Symptoms

Study: Psilocybin Relieves OCD Symptoms

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

TUCSON, Ariz. - A preliminary study of the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms has found it is effective in relieving the symptoms of people suffering from severe obsessive compulsive disorder, a University of Arizona psychiatrist reports.

Dr. Francisco A. Moreno led the first FDA-approved clinical study of psilocybin since it was outlawed in 1970. The results of the small-scale study are published in the latest edition of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Moreno said the study's intent was only to test the safety of administering psilocybin to patients, and its effectiveness is still in doubt until a larger controlled study can be conducted.

But in each of the nine patients in the study, psilocybin completely removed symptoms of the disorder for a period of about four to 24 hours, with some remaining symptom-free for days, Moreno said. "What we saw acutely was a drastic decrease in symptoms," Moreno said. "The obsessions would really dissolve or reduce drastically for a period of time."

http://home.peoplepc.com/psp/newsstory.asp?cat=health&id=20061220/4588c350_3ca6_1552620061220-2077822489

He's got OCD and schizophrenia. He couldn't get any crazier, but he'd at least be more mellow.

"Here, Tommy, have some mushrooms..."

Such an introspective drug could probably allow them to actually deal with their memories and feelings in a way that they can't when they are "straight." I imagine it lets them walk through their memories in a very detached way, like walking through someone else's house, checking everything out.

I don't have OCD, but I have PTSD.

This sounds very intriguing. How are shrooms an "introspective drug", as you say? It sounds like
you are describing the effect of hypnotism. At least, that's how I experienced hypnotism.

In my own experience(s) back in the day, I found the experience to be very intense and personal, and yet very detached. It is introspective in that you do get lost in your thoughts and time goes by without your even being aware. And you don't care. I have never been under hypnosis, so I can't speak to the comparison.

But my friends and I came to the conclusion that you have to have, at minimum, a solid sense of self somewhere deep down, or grounded, I guess, is the better word. If you have a broken psyche, I wouldn't recommend it. As they said about LSD, there is no bad acid, just bad trips. You have to have some "core," if that makes any sense. If you don't, it may not help and could be quite traumatic, actually.

I am no longer afraid of my deeper, more despairing thoughts. I've confronted them, and it's okay. The sun still rises. That's why I think it may help some PTSD folks. Not all, though. Some people should never be sent into those environs created by war, and there is no way to know who they are until it's too late.

but more in the PTSD, in my first post, so I really didn't read the OP very well, did I???

I am still OCD, so clearly it never helped me!!! But it had other, very valuable, benefits.

OCD isn't caused by bad memories or unprocessed emotions (although it can be precipitated or aggrivated by stress, as can lupus and alopecia). It seems to be caused by the neurotransmitter levels a person has and the "circuits" they are using in their brain.

Hallucinogens, in general, usually cause a flood of serotonin, and they also cause a lot of random activation of various nerves. The random activity, some suspect, allows the brain to become very plastic for a while and lets the person create new patterns of firing among the neurons. The new patterns can be used to "re-wire" the brain's habitual neural paths.

Tucker

So I'd have to 'shroom 1-6 times each day?

Dude! I'm there!

in a week, then you have to take a break before they work again, don't they?

i rather don't want to let go of my obsessive-compulsive side and it is one of the reasons why i won't do shrooms myself, altho i'm always entertained by friends' trip reports

Way back when, the very few times I did 'shrooms(I lived in Gainesville FLA, and when the spring rains there hit the cow flop, the 'shrooms go wild. It was a time when the whole county was whacked.), I experienced a certain "quickening of the flesh" in an area that could cause shock and dismay in anyone who noticed.

Every damn time. Rockwell scale 11.

I remember reading a study a few weeks ago that showed drinking dilute concentrations of psilocybin prevents migraine headaches. I wonder if there is a connection....

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

You'll put an eye out, kid!

Big pharma will knock anything out of the water that threatens its own difficult to make "treatments" for OCD (or anything else for that matter) especially if its all natural and can be produced my small manufacturers.

There's money to be made here. What they'll do is find the chemical pathway it works on, and make a proprietary formula that affects the cascade in the same way, and (since it's more targeted) with fewer/gentler side effects. Then they'll release it and make a fortune until it goes generic.

I could tell you what I WISH I was smoking, but other than that the answer is nothing; things like pot are blocked from the market for the same reason psilocybin will be; its to easy to manufacture, and big pharma likes their monopolies. I HOPE you get to prove me wrong, but I am convinced nothing even resembling psilly cybin will be on the market, barring a revolution in thinking of some sort. :(

That it would help an anxiety disorder.
I have multiple anxiety orders, including OCD and panic disorder.
Even though my husband has taken them, I have not tried them. He gets hot and nausea when he takes them. Those sensations alone often trigger panic attacks for me. I also have felt a lot of anxiety getting high on pot or drunk on alcohol. It bothers me to lose control.
If it helps some people though, perhaps it should be prescribed. Maybe, it should first be given in a controlled environment though.

in a comfortable situation with people you trust. As always.

I can see how this would really impact OCD based on my experience but certainly folks react differently.

This is a completely alternate experience from pot and alcohol.

What's also quite a factor is the cultural context.

n/t

from my experience with the drug it has some very interesting properties in low doses.

and that would involve going into one of the most sensitive subjects of all time, a subject that is related to the control of human beings via a variety of methodologies aimed at the central nervous system.

Drugs, directed energy, hypnosis, torture, propaganda, all have been tried and tested on unwitting or captive human research subjects.

MK ULTRA, the mind control "research" conducted for years by the national security community and many leading institutions ran simultaneously to similar "research" in other nations.

The development of highly sophisticated technologies found in neuro-science was shepherded by the national security community.

Remember that when you read about these "limited" research efforts by Dr. Moreno and his "colleagues".

on edit: UA faculty note on Dr. Moreno
http://www.psychiatry.arizona.edu/html/people/faculty/moreno.htm