Magic Mushrooms Help Treat Existential Anxiety In Cancer Patients
http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/magic-mushrooms-help-treat-existential-anxiety-cancer-patients/
IFLScience
By: Ben Taub
December 1, 2016
People suffering from cancer may find help in a hallucinogen called psilocybin. It is commonly found in magic mushrooms. A single dose of the drug can produce long-lasting reductions in clinical depression, anxiety and existential worry in around 80 percent of patients facing the prospect of potentially terminal cancer. Roland Griffiths explained that a cancer diagnosis can be psychologically challenging. He and some colleagues took 51 patients and after getting a dose of psilocybin, their mood improved. The participants described their experience as transformative. It helped them gain a new perspective, improving their state of mind and well-being. Psilocybin activates the brain’s serotonin receptors. Because serotonin is one of the key neurotransmitters involved in controlling mood, scientists suspect that this may explain the anti-depressant effects of psilocybin.
The first thing that this makes me think is, what happens once they don`t need it anymore, so they get taken off it? The drug makes them happy, so they might end up getting addicted to it. I would never want to try this in case I end up getting addicted. I hope that this doesn`t become something that we always give to cancer patients. This is not a positive topic, because they are taking drugs to make them happy, but it`s not negative, because they have improved moods despite the cancer. But, when they get taken off it, they won`t have the drug improving their mood, so they might fall hard. I think it would be better if it had talked about what happens after.
Chemistry
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