If there's no better method, you can take placebo pills with sugar in them. But otherwise better do something that works better, placebo effect is rarely enough for serious issues. Cool study...
If there's no better method, you can take placebo pills with sugar in them. But otherwise better do something that works better, placebo effect is rarely enough for serious issues.
Cool study though, I remember the video they made with the self-blinding protocol (I think that was the one). Nice to see they got pretty conclusive results.
You and @Omnicrola might be interested in this article: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/placebo-effect-grows-in-u-s-thwarting-development-of-painkillers/ One of the key factors in...
You and @Omnicrola might be interested in this article:
Psych meds in particular are a fussy bunch anyway. "Oh med X is isn't/stopped working? Let's try more/less, then try Y or Z" Repeat indefinitely. Having more options is always better. Because...
Psych meds in particular are a fussy bunch anyway.
"Oh med X is isn't/stopped working? Let's try more/less, then try Y or Z"
Repeat indefinitely. Having more options is always better. Because what's 10% effective for one person might be 100% effective for another.
Hell, based on my experiences with psych meds, microdosing psychadellics would be preferable in many ways. The side effects of anti-depressants are horrendous....especially the suicidal thoughts.
Psychiatric treatment is far from exact especially when compared with other more well understood specialities. The brain is just too complex and unknown. Psychedelics are another avenue for...
Psychiatric treatment is far from exact especially when compared with other more well understood specialities. The brain is just too complex and unknown. Psychedelics are another avenue for possible treatments, and nothing guarantees it will be different. "Oh, so mushrooms didn't do the trick? What about some LSD? Have you tried ketamine? Maybe we should adjust the dosage" and so on.
I mean psychiatry is not discrete math, but is also not quackery.
Ketamine has novel pathways for mid to long term depression mediation not observed in other medications. Many psychedelics are proven to stimulate neurogenesis, a trait very rarely observed in...
Psychedelics are another avenue for possible treatments, and nothing guarantees it will be different.
Ketamine has novel pathways for mid to long term depression mediation not observed in other medications. Many psychedelics are proven to stimulate neurogenesis, a trait very rarely observed in medication.
I think it's unfair to dismiss this as no 'guarantee it will be different'. There are promising features of these newer medications which have not been explored previously.
I do think, however, you are correct that the brain is incredibly complicated and unknown and I think your criticism that we may simply jump from one medication to another because we have poor insight into how to classify brains and understand the underlying pathology of mental conditions is a fair assessment. But this is really just a symptom of human diversity and the complex nature of why someone has a given mental illness or irregularity. It's not a symptom of the drugs being inadequately different from existing treatments.
In certain cases, not really. Especially for symptom treatment, like pain management. For mental health issues, it's also probably best to focus on the results rather than a specific method of...
Definitely, mental health is more ripe for placebo treatment than any other, if not preferrable. Anti-depressants are terrible for you. If a placebo will work instead, that's a huge win.
Definitely, mental health is more ripe for placebo treatment than any other, if not preferrable.
Anti-depressants are terrible for you. If a placebo will work instead, that's a huge win.
Just a load of nitpicky rambling I'm not entirely sure why the focus of this article is on subjective sensation of well-being, as the main study they're drawing from isn't primarily focused on it,...
Just a load of nitpicky rambling
I'm not entirely sure why the focus of this article is on subjective sensation of well-being, as the main study they're drawing from isn't primarily focused on it, and, frankly, the framing of microdosing as "spirituality in a pill" comes across as entirely divorced from any of the scientific underpinnings of why it might have any effect. In general, many subjective effects of psychedelics, from the visual 'hallucinations' to spiritual awakenings, may be attributed to them "softening" the rules of reality that the brain has learned, and subperceptual doses of psychedelics may lead to a long term increase in neuroplasticity, allowing for faster establishment, or destruction, of habit. We know that major facets of nearly all mental illnesses are matters of psychologically-driven positive feedback loops due to maladaptive coping mechanisms, and the ability to break down those mechanisms is valuable in making long-term changes in mental health.
My experiences with microdosing include a broad range of states of mind, from momentary terror to euphoria, but most of the time they just feel like...normalcy, plus a bit of cognitive stimulation. The real benefits (for myself) lie in an increase of my ability to connect my current actions to my future prospects, therefore easing my struggles with executive dysfunction. Somewhat ironically, given what I wrote above, I feel it's helped my subjective sense of well-being, because microdosing helps me to enact habits that I would otherwise benefit from anyway, if I had the wherewithal to build them without any medication. The effects I'm attributing to microdosing may well be placebo, but regardless, the last ~8 months have simultaneously been my most successful in terms of healthy habit formation and the only months of my life that I've regularly microdosed.
Beyond that nitpicking, the primary study discussed here comes to the conclusion that despite
[a]cute (emotional state, drug intensity, mood, energy, and creativity) and post-acute (anxiety) scales showed small, but significant microdose vs. placebo differences[...]
those statistically significant results should be ignored, due to an inability for the researchers to verify that the subjects did not fail to blind themselves. I understand the practice of hedging toward placebo, but to take a study that essentially is saying "we assume that we can't trust our results", even if that's the right thing for the researchers to do, and reporting that study as more meaningful than all other research in the field, is just another example of the poor state of science journalism. I fully expect this to be an "Eggs are the healthiest source of protein!" six months later "Eggs cause early and painful demise!"-type situation for the foreseeable future.
A nice question to ponder: If it works, does it matter?
If there's no better method, you can take placebo pills with sugar in them. But otherwise better do something that works better, placebo effect is rarely enough for serious issues.
Cool study though, I remember the video they made with the self-blinding protocol (I think that was the one). Nice to see they got pretty conclusive results.
You and @Omnicrola might be interested in this article:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/placebo-effect-grows-in-u-s-thwarting-development-of-painkillers/
One of the key factors in developing all medication is to see if it's more effective than a placebo.
The hypothetical negative of placebo is that it can occupy the place of a more effective alternative.
Psych meds in particular are a fussy bunch anyway.
"Oh med X is isn't/stopped working? Let's try more/less, then try Y or Z"
Repeat indefinitely. Having more options is always better. Because what's 10% effective for one person might be 100% effective for another.
Hell, based on my experiences with psych meds, microdosing psychadellics would be preferable in many ways. The side effects of anti-depressants are horrendous....especially the suicidal thoughts.
Psychiatric treatment is far from exact especially when compared with other more well understood specialities. The brain is just too complex and unknown. Psychedelics are another avenue for possible treatments, and nothing guarantees it will be different. "Oh, so mushrooms didn't do the trick? What about some LSD? Have you tried ketamine? Maybe we should adjust the dosage" and so on.
I mean psychiatry is not discrete math, but is also not quackery.
Ketamine has novel pathways for mid to long term depression mediation not observed in other medications. Many psychedelics are proven to stimulate neurogenesis, a trait very rarely observed in medication.
I think it's unfair to dismiss this as no 'guarantee it will be different'. There are promising features of these newer medications which have not been explored previously.
I do think, however, you are correct that the brain is incredibly complicated and unknown and I think your criticism that we may simply jump from one medication to another because we have poor insight into how to classify brains and understand the underlying pathology of mental conditions is a fair assessment. But this is really just a symptom of human diversity and the complex nature of why someone has a given mental illness or irregularity. It's not a symptom of the drugs being inadequately different from existing treatments.
In certain cases, not really. Especially for symptom treatment, like pain management. For mental health issues, it's also probably best to focus on the results rather than a specific method of correction. https://www.health.harvard.edu/mental-health/the-power-of-the-placebo-effect
Definitely, mental health is more ripe for placebo treatment than any other, if not preferrable.
Anti-depressants are terrible for you. If a placebo will work instead, that's a huge win.
Just a load of nitpicky rambling
I'm not entirely sure why the focus of this article is on subjective sensation of well-being, as the main study they're drawing from isn't primarily focused on it, and, frankly, the framing of microdosing as "spirituality in a pill" comes across as entirely divorced from any of the scientific underpinnings of why it might have any effect. In general, many subjective effects of psychedelics, from the visual 'hallucinations' to spiritual awakenings, may be attributed to them "softening" the rules of reality that the brain has learned, and subperceptual doses of psychedelics may lead to a long term increase in neuroplasticity, allowing for faster establishment, or destruction, of habit. We know that major facets of nearly all mental illnesses are matters of psychologically-driven positive feedback loops due to maladaptive coping mechanisms, and the ability to break down those mechanisms is valuable in making long-term changes in mental health.My experiences with microdosing include a broad range of states of mind, from momentary terror to euphoria, but most of the time they just feel like...normalcy, plus a bit of cognitive stimulation. The real benefits (for myself) lie in an increase of my ability to connect my current actions to my future prospects, therefore easing my struggles with executive dysfunction. Somewhat ironically, given what I wrote above, I feel it's helped my subjective sense of well-being, because microdosing helps me to enact habits that I would otherwise benefit from anyway, if I had the wherewithal to build them without any medication. The effects I'm attributing to microdosing may well be placebo, but regardless, the last ~8 months have simultaneously been my most successful in terms of healthy habit formation and the only months of my life that I've regularly microdosed.
Beyond that nitpicking, the primary study discussed here comes to the conclusion that despite
those statistically significant results should be ignored, due to an inability for the researchers to verify that the subjects did not fail to blind themselves. I understand the practice of hedging toward placebo, but to take a study that essentially is saying "we assume that we can't trust our results", even if that's the right thing for the researchers to do, and reporting that study as more meaningful than all other research in the field, is just another example of the poor state of science journalism. I fully expect this to be an "Eggs are the healthiest source of protein!" six months later "Eggs cause early and painful demise!"-type situation for the foreseeable future.
I have a large bag of shrooms lying around. This actually makes me want to try microdosing for a few days.