The use of psychedelic drugs does not increase a person’s risk of developing mental health problems, according to new research published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.
Norwegian clinical psychologist Pål-Ørjan Johansen and neuroscientist Teri Suzanne Krebs said the findings show that most of the claims about the harms from psychedelic drugs like LSD, “magic” psilocybe mushrooms, and mescaline-containing cacti are unfounded.
“There is little evidence linking psychedelic use to lasting mental health problems. In general, use of psychedelics does not appear to be particularly dangerous when compared to other activities considered to have acceptable safety,” the researchers wrote in the study.
“Concern about psychedelic use seems to have been based on media sensationalism, lack of information and cultural biases, rather than evidence-based harm assessments.”
The study was based on 135,095 American adults who participated in the annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The researchers found no association between psychedelic drug use and psychological distress, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts. Those who used psychedelics were actually less likely to need mental health treatment than those who didn’t use the drugs.
“Over 30 million US adults have tried psychedelics and there just is not much evidence of health problems,” Johansen said in a news release.
Funny, and yet people will swear up and down that marijuana does increase risk for schizophrenia — or maybe susceptible people self-medicate? — Since ya know, a priori it would seem more likely that hallucinogens would have a much bigger impact on that than would THC.
I thought that for a long time, but now researchers are saying no. I dunno…
I mean given that hallucinogens actual do bind at 5-HT receptors and some DA receptors, and THC does not, but has its own set of receptors (AA or anandamide) mostly on glial cells, to boot, not even neurons mostly.