Psychedelic drugs are transforming the way depression is understood and treated

This The article was published for The Guardiantranslated into Albanian by Periscope. 

The long-standing psychiatrist has tried and failed to find convincing bio-medical explanations for depression. A popular idea, <x0 heipotin's”, was inspired by observation of the effects of anti-depressant drugs in the growth of this natural chemical in the brain. Originally produced in the mid-1980s, Prozak [named chemical as fluoxin] is among the most famous. One of these, Cirpralexis [eskitalopram] is among the youngest and best performers.

While serotonin hypotheses have come up with support from science, they have been sold massively by the pharmaceutical industry. This has raised doubts about the one-way neurochemical explanation for depression, which suggests, for example, that people are depressed because of low levels of serotonin. Recent evidence shows that anti-depressants like eskitalopram are only marginalally more effective in treating depression than placebo, with an average response of 50 to 60%. Other restrictions of these anti-depressants include minor compatibility, symptoms when people stop pointing to them, unpleasant side effects and slow beginnings of their positive effects.

I've started researching an alternative in relation to anti-depressants about 15 years ago as part of my PhD. Psilocibina, component of the <x0-kirks ~x1>, is a classic psicdelic drug. When taken in high doses, it completely alters the quality of the human conscience, producing complex visions and distancing suppressed memories and feelings. After completing a series of studies involving psychocibin, including early testing of its effects among people who resist the treatment of depression, I decided to do a more rigorous test that could help in the context of therapeutic hopes of drugs in question. Test results came up last year, and whose findings have already been published in the New England Medical Journal.

These tests included 59 people with moderate and severe depression. They were placed in one of the two treatment groups: one in which the main treatment was a six-week course of conventional anti-depressants, with eccystaloprams, and the other, in which the main treatment was two doses of psychibin through therapeutic sessions.

Those in the eskitalopram group resulted as expected, given earlier data from testing anti-depressants. The average answer in this treatment turned out to be 33%. On the other hand, the psychiatrist's group worked much faster, reducing the level of depression for a day after the first session of the dosage. At the end of this trial, the average response to psychocibin treatment was more than 70 percent successful.

Even though we had waited for the psycho-depressants to perform well, we didn't expect him to perform as well as he did. In fact, the main hypothesis for this test was that psych therapy would have superior effects on psychological well - being, but not on the gravity of depression. But people in the psychocibin group showed evidence of high improvements in the measurements of depression, as well as symptoms of anxiety, job function, and society, and suicidal feelings and the ability to feel emotions and satisfaction.

Both groups experienced the same levels of side effects, but eskitalopram experienced worse drowsiness, dried mouth, sexual disfunctionality and anxiety. In the psychocibin group, the most common side effect was a slight headache one day after the dosing.

Why does psylocibin seem to be more successful treatment for depression than typical anti-depressants? Data from brain images from testing, along with the psychological data we've collected, seems to show that while anti-depressants become emotionally numb by reducing brain accountability to stress in the brain, psychibin seems to release thinking and feeling. It does this by disturbing “ ” the most evolutionary aspect of our brain: nechotrex. When this deliverance occurs along with professional psychological support, the most common result is a renewed breadth of perspective. Psychdelic therapy seems to contain a type of psychological development that is good for mental health.

The most amazing aspect of this testing was the sense that we are on the verge of a predimatic change in mental health care related to an improved understanding of the origins of depression, and of how we can treat it more effectively. In my view, this change will lead us from my miope and unbased “vec-ilace” that has dominated psychiatry for many decades to a multi-level model “biopscocial”. This model sees symptoms of depression as a adaptive response to disasters, with deciphered causers, however complex. Psychdelic drugs can treat depression by activating the most powerful steps of the brain that have evolved in people to catatize deep psychological changes. When these “hyper-plastic situations combine with an environmentally educated context, express defanzies of mind and behavior can undergo a healthier revision.

These ideas aren't just closed at the academy. Since I wrote about developments in the psycidelic medicine for The Guardian last year, the state of Oregon has voted in favour of legalisation of psycidelic drugs for therapy, a Senate bill has been designed to dediscriminate psych drugs in Califormi, and policies are being revised in New York, Washington, DC, New Jersey, Florida, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. The Australian government has pledged that it will provide 8.5m pounds [approximately 10m euros] for research in this area, while two new research has been announced by American universities. Of course, our study is not a permit for people to treat themselves. But these are amazing developments that show governments are recognizing the benefits of psychedelic therapies.

Many obstacles have slowed progress in psychedelic medicine, and there will no doubt be more, from court cases to moral controversy. If we achieve a popular improvement in psychological well-being, this road will be easy. Despite my last test, I sometimes wonder if we'll make it. What I'm sure about is, we should try.

* Autor is head of London's Imperial College Centre for Psychilization