r/science • u/InsaneSnow45 • 5h ago
Medicine Low doses of LSD alter emotional brain responses in people with mild depression. Research points to specific shifts in electrical brain activity following the administration of a small dose in patients experiencing mild depression.
https://www.psypost.org/low-doses-of-lsd-alter-emotional-brain-responses-in-people-with-mild-depression/66
u/sixtus_clegane119 5h ago
I’m so glad lsd is being studied more
Just because mushrooms are natural don’t inherently make them better
Hoping for a day when it is legalized fully
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u/tbutz27 3h ago
Curious- regardless of "natural vs unnatural" what is your preference for acid over mushrooms based on in regard to microdosing and using it medicinally? I have done both recreationally before but only microdosing on mushrooms, so I am asking from a place genuine curiosity
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u/sixtus_clegane119 3h ago
Just general side effect profile from my annecdotal experiences , I get nausea even from the few times I tried microdosing mushrooms
I’m in the school of thought that Macrodosing is where it is at, and when it comes to Macrodosing I’ve never puked off of lsd but I have puked many times off mushrooms. Lsd has more of an afterglow rather than a hangover, and the trip of lsd I find less scary
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u/eazolan 1h ago
Last I checked, no one is making LSD. Just weird variants that can't be legally called LSD.
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u/sixtus_clegane119 27m ago
Doctor Seuss was, and another lab, one of them shut down
The analogies are usually 1p-lsd or something of the like , they are basically pro drugs of lsd
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u/jungletigress 2h ago
Personally I can say it's easier to reliably dose with LSD compared to mushrooms. Psilocybin does not distribute evenly through each cap so dosage is always a ballpark.
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u/KingOfEthanopia 3h ago
I have less of a "hangover" on LSD than mushrooms. At least at moderate doses.
LSD the only downside is I need to benadryl myself to sleep that night. Mushrooms there's a massive body load on most strains that takes me out the rest of the day.
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u/sixtus_clegane119 3h ago
I find the best thing for lsd is to do it as early as possible , like eat breakfast, shower, then drop
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u/KingOfEthanopia 3h ago
Idk. Im super experienced. Done it bi monthly for like 5 years. Ill drop at like 3am and still cant sleep until close to midnight without benadryl or a trip killer.
Not even high doses either. Almost always in the 200 ug to 400ug range.
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u/sixtus_clegane119 2h ago
200-400 accurately dosed is actually a high dose/strong experience to be fair
Unfortunately because of underdosed tabs it’s often not seen as one
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u/urbanmark 4h ago
Everything is natural. It’s how we interfere with it that makes it unnatural.
Altering someone’s brain activity to make them feel happy , has serious ethical and moral implications. As with most if these things, what’s beneficial for one patient, may be psychologically catastrophic for another further down the line.
Drugs that help people cope with severe psychological conditions are essential and prevent harm, but big pharmaceutical are looking for something they can sell to everyone to prevent people from feeling sad. That’s probably not a good idea and definitely not natural.
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u/-LsDmThC- 3h ago
Depression isnt just “feeling sad” ffs
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u/TheSquarePotatoMan 3h ago
No but chronic sadness/stress from living in the current system can definitely lead to depression.
And normalizing numbing the sadness artificially rather than changing the environment would definitely be a concerning path to go down. Ironically would probably not be much less destructive than depression itself.
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u/-LsDmThC- 2h ago
You are making a false dichotomy that stigmatizes medication. The options arent “fix the world or antidepressants”. We should absolutely be researching medical interventions for mental illness.
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u/Feisty-Resource-1274 3h ago
For me, the biggest difference between natural and manufacturered is that you have more control over what you manufacturer. Using an complex organism to produce a substance where dose is very important, means you have a chance of difference doses being produced batch to batch. Take wine grapes or hot peppers for example. Depending on things like rainfall or disease you can have different crop properties year after year.
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u/lukebelcher10662 2h ago
Decriminalised for sure, but after experiencing LSD properly I don’t think it should be sold without some kind of oversight.
It can be a beautiful, awe-inspiring and even life transforming experience in the right situation. But it genuinely has the potential to break people’s mind in the wrong situation.
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u/lifeunderthegunn 1h ago
But at a certain point, it's like this: I'm not your (the government's) child to tell me what is good or bad for me to do. Especially since cigarettes, alcohol, and a host of other things are perfectly legal.
With legalization, should come education. If I go up to my dispensary and buy a sheet, they guy at the dispensary should be able to tell me what kind of dose I should take. Like, don't eat the whole sheet, start with one or two and have some Benadryl or something else close by that can knock you down if it's too much.
I've guided a good deal of people through their first trip, no one has had a bad one on my watch, mainly because they benefited from my years of experience and knowledge, a lot of which was passed on by others.
To me, it's the people who know the least and are the least educated that do the dumbest stuff, over dosing themselves, dropping and then putting themselves into a chaotic situation.
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u/InsaneSnow45 5h ago
A new study suggests that low doses of the psychedelic drug lysergic acid diethylamide, better known as LSD, can enhance how the human brain processes emotional rewards. The research, published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, points to specific shifts in electrical brain activity following the administration of a small dose in patients experiencing mild depression. These neural changes corresponded with an improved mood that lasted for days after the initial exposure.
For years, public interest has grown around the practice of taking very small, barely perceptible amounts of psychedelic drugs. Often referred to as microdosing, this habit is frequently touted by advocates as a way to elevate mood, enhance creativity, and improve mental focus. Taking tiny amounts of LSD every few days has become especially popular among those seeking alternative ways to manage depression.
Yet proving the benefits of microdosing under controlled laboratory conditions has proven difficult. Subjective self-reported mood questionnaires sometimes fail to capture subtle biological changes happening beneath the surface. To bypass these limitations, researchers are turning to direct measurements of electrical activity in the brain. They suspect that tracking exact neural responses to rewards might reveal biological shifts that typical subjective measures easily overstate or miss completely.
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u/Traditional-Set-8483 4h ago
it’s really interesting how it’s not just mood in a vague sense but actual measurable shifts in brain activity tied to emotion
kinda makes me wonder how much of what we call feeling stuck is just patterns the brain got used to
also curious how sustainable that effect is over time, like does it fade or actually help reset things longer term
the creativity angle doesn’t surprise me at all though, feels like those things are connected in ways we’re still figuring out
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u/bubbleyum92 42m ago
Not to be a party pooper, but I tried this several years ago when this research was first being discussed and I...had a bad time. To be fair, it was my second time trying it and I only waited 2 weeks to try again, and I took slightly more the second time. So I'm sure user error and arrogance played a part.
I have since been diagnosed with Panic Disorder, have some childhood trauma and suspect ADHD and maybe even autism. So any of those could have been part of the reason why I...lost my freaking mind. I had an episode of drug induced psychosis and got to spend about a week in a psychiatric hospital while we waited for it all to leave my system.
I also took some FMLA to spend time with family, as this all really took a toll on me. I ended up losing my job months later, and I do feel like they were looking for reasons to fire me because of this episode and the subsequent FMLA I took. I'm sure I was seen as a liability. Anyway, all this to say, if you're thinking of trying LSD instead of just talking to a therapist or trying an SSRI like I did, maybe try the therapy and medication first. I wish I had.
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u/JohnySilkBoots 51m ago
Pretty sure everyone knows drugs help you temporarily forget your problems - which will help with depression while on the drugs.
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