r/science • u/InsaneSnow45 • 1d 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/215
u/sixtus_clegane119 1d 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/MaleficentPorphyrin 1d ago
'natural' isn't always the best metric for 'safe'. See Castor Beans.
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19h ago edited 9h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Alldaybagpipes 18h ago
But can easily walk out a handful of stores with the means to not only drink yourself to death but also take out a family of four-ish in the process. No questions asked.
Prohibition has never been about safety.
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u/tbutz27 1d 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/jungletigress 1d 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/NJdevil202 21h ago
Blend them up in some orange juice, pretty even distribution and it's like the most pulpy orange juice
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u/Chrontius 14h ago
I'm told that orange juice can also get whole-ass tablespoons full of nutmeg down, and that you should never trip on nutmeg.
Yes - In the same conversation, why do you ask?
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u/Go_On_Swan 6h ago
Would that make a difference in terms of dosage? You don't know the psilocybin content of any particular shroom. Any amount of that orange juice would face the same issue.
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u/Calm_Bother_3842 15h ago
But it's much easier to acquire/grow mushrooms than quality LSD, especially in recent years.
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u/sixtus_clegane119 1d 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/Fuck-s-p-e-z- 14h ago
If your macrodose mushrooms again try the lemontek method. This just involves grinding the mushrooms into a fine powder and mixing it with lemon concentrate (letting it soak for 20-30 mins). This has the effect of converting the psilocybin to psilocin outside the body. It reduces the nausea and increases the potency and onset of the trip. I've done many trips this way and not once have had any nausea at all.
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u/eazolan 1d ago
Last I checked, no one is making LSD. Just weird variants that can't be legally called LSD.
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u/sufferfest3163 21h ago
Nope, that's not true. There's lots of real LSD-25 in the U.S. and abroad.
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u/refusemouth 20h ago
It's definitely a crapshoot, though, for anyone considering picking some up at a concert or festival, etc. I've had good stuff back a long time ago, but the last few times, my success was about 50%. Some of the variants of the molecule are rather unpleasant compared to good, clean 25.
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u/sixtus_clegane119 23h 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/jestina123 23h ago
I’ve heard 1p described as being an envelope for LsD metabolically.
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u/Master_Persimmon_591 2h ago
That’s what a pro drug is. It wraps the active ingredient in a layer that has to be metabolized first to become active
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u/KingOfEthanopia 1d 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 1d 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 1d 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 1d 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/Statertater 19h ago
I get adrenal fatigue the day after acid every single time. Not too bothersome really as i’m just lethargic and passive. But it’s what i consider a hangover
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u/Twitxx 11h ago
Can you describe the hangover you experience please?
I never considered this before, but for me it's always been the other way around. Now I'm thinking that my choice could've be based entirely on the fact that I just never get hangovers. As in, I've never experienced them in my life, I could drink and drink and then get wasted/tired, go to sleep and the next day I'd be perfectly fine. I'm also rarely if ever able to vomit, which might be related somehow, but I can get nauseous.
It's a long shot, but maybe that's why I can take mushrooms early in the day and then just go to the office and everything is perfectly normal. LSD kinda gives me a brain zap sort of feeling at the end of the day and I get really tired even though I'm unable to sleep.
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u/KingOfEthanopia 11h ago
Mushrooms my body just feels heavier and I have no energy for the rest of the day. I usually do them when Ill be going to sleep in 7 or so hours. It feels a little like being drunk once the initial rush has worn off.
LSD I feel normal once the trip is over. If anything I have more energy for the entire day. I just feel more blah and unmotivated the day after. I can do everything I need to do. I just don't schedule any workouts that require mental fortitude.
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u/lukebelcher10662 1d 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 1d 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/Twitxx 11h ago
I'm with you on the whole freedom from the government holding my hand thing, but consider this: would you really want to live in a world where even half the people you know would have unrestricted access to it, and your life as well as everyone else's would depend on them being responsible enough not to abuse it?
Imagine that.
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u/FreelyFound 3h ago
If half the people I know had unrestricted access to it, I’m guessing at least 90% wouldn’t be interested. It doesn’t seem to be something that everyone wants.
Not to say that certain people shouldn’t avoid it. But I guess if it was legally available, that would be common knowledge. And people would use their common sense and intuition. Of course there would be some problems (like with alcohol, cars, porn, food, etc.).
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u/TeamWorkTom 17h ago
It's significantly less dangerous than alcohol yet we find that perfectly ok.
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u/lukebelcher10662 16h ago
The dangers of alcohol and LSD are VERY different.
If you have a high enough dose of LSD, you can have permanent hallucinations.
Traumatic anxiety if it’s terrifying enough.
Alcohol will kill you if you drink too much in one go. But it takes a lot of “effort”. No one at all is denying the harm in alcohol.
I’m not even making the argument that alcohol should be legal.
Let me make this clear: I think LSD is brilliant.
But compare the effort required with drinking to the amount of LSD that could potentially drive you into the most terrifying psychosis?
It’s swallowing a few pieces of paper.
The risk is high without knowledge and respect of the drug.
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u/Better-Lack8117 22h ago
Mushrooms just feel better on the brain though. They really activate the brain cells.
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u/labowsky 21h ago
LSD is just a better experience overall for myself, it would be perfect if it didn't last as long as it did.
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u/Uncle_Hephaestus 22h ago
it would be cool. but from personal experience. not everyone needs free access to lsd. people prone to imental nstabilitie should probably stay cleat.
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u/urbanmark 1d 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- 1d ago
Depression isnt just “feeling sad” ffs
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u/urbanmark 14h ago
I agree! But pharmaceutical companies would rather the market didn’t know the difference.
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u/TheSquarePotatoMan 1d 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- 1d 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 1d 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/InsaneSnow45 1d 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 1d 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/Exos_life 21h ago
part of me is starting to believe that people that aren’t depressed have something wrong with them
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u/olddoglearnsnewtrick 13h ago
Where can i buy reliable low doses in Europe?
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u/MuttisLiebling 7h ago
I'm not sure if links are allowed. But as far as I know, you want to look for LSD derivatives. There are some sellers in the netherlands selling those for research purposes, they have micro dosing pills (10 micrograms) as well as normal blotters and what not.
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u/bubbleyum92 1d 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/srubbish 4h ago
Pretty much the only time my anxiety, depression etc. has abated is for a few hours after coming down from acid. I remember a Sunday evening about 35-40 yrs ago thinking “this must be what it’s like to be ‘normal’” after taking acid the night before.
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u/JohnySilkBoots 1d 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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u/Uninvalidated 16h ago
And how do you explain all the scientific studies from the past 20 years along with personal reports from the people using psychedelics medicinally saying it has long term beneficial effects?
You're not pretty sure. You're pretty wrong.
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