kebaldwin
Sun, Jul-16-06, 20:22
Study: Magic Mushrooms Can Help Depression
July 16, 2006 12:00 p.m. EST
Joanna Wypior - All Headline News Staff Reporter
London, England (AHN) - A new study reveals that the hallucinogenic chemical in 'magic mushrooms' can help fight off signs of depression as well as anxiety and drug dependence.
A compound in the mushrooms called psilocybin, can prompt changes in a person's mood and behavior to a more positive affect.
During the study, researchers noted that a third of the 36 participants described their psilocybin experience as the "most spiritually significant" of their lives.
Many of the volunteers in the study compared the experience to the birth of their first child or the death of a parent, describing it as a "full mystical experience."
It is noted that the volunteers were all healthy, well-educated, mostly middle-aged and with no family history of psychotic illness.
Although outlawed in the United States, 'magic mushrooms' have been made into a Class A drug, but because of a loophole in a UK law, they are not illegal in their natural state in the UK.
According to the Daily Mail, Dr. Herbert Kleber, Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University in New York, wrote: "The positive findings of the study cannot help but raise concern in some that it will lead to increased experimenting with these substances by youth in the kind of uncontrolled and unmonitored fashion that produced casualties over the past three decades.
"Any study reporting a positive or useful effect of a drug of abuse raises these same concerns. In this internet age, however, where youth are deluged with glowing personal reports in chat rooms and web sites as well as detailed information about the various agents and how to use them, it is less likely that a scientific study would move the needle much."
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7004231551
July 16, 2006 12:00 p.m. EST
Joanna Wypior - All Headline News Staff Reporter
London, England (AHN) - A new study reveals that the hallucinogenic chemical in 'magic mushrooms' can help fight off signs of depression as well as anxiety and drug dependence.
A compound in the mushrooms called psilocybin, can prompt changes in a person's mood and behavior to a more positive affect.
During the study, researchers noted that a third of the 36 participants described their psilocybin experience as the "most spiritually significant" of their lives.
Many of the volunteers in the study compared the experience to the birth of their first child or the death of a parent, describing it as a "full mystical experience."
It is noted that the volunteers were all healthy, well-educated, mostly middle-aged and with no family history of psychotic illness.
Although outlawed in the United States, 'magic mushrooms' have been made into a Class A drug, but because of a loophole in a UK law, they are not illegal in their natural state in the UK.
According to the Daily Mail, Dr. Herbert Kleber, Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University in New York, wrote: "The positive findings of the study cannot help but raise concern in some that it will lead to increased experimenting with these substances by youth in the kind of uncontrolled and unmonitored fashion that produced casualties over the past three decades.
"Any study reporting a positive or useful effect of a drug of abuse raises these same concerns. In this internet age, however, where youth are deluged with glowing personal reports in chat rooms and web sites as well as detailed information about the various agents and how to use them, it is less likely that a scientific study would move the needle much."
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7004231551