Psychological Reactions to Medications/Substances - Part 1

[Armee]

Oh Kizzie. I'm so glad you'll get some help but so sorry it is so expensive.

[Kizzie]

Tks Armee 

[Blueberry]

Oh Kizzie. I'm so glad you'll get some help but so sorry it is so expensive.

I'm so grateful I live in a country where that is all covered by all health insurance, not just by private insurance.

Kizzie, it hurts to hear how much you have to dig into your savings. I really, really hope it helps. (My therapist said a few years ago he got about €80 for 50 minutes from my health insurance (not private), a psychiatrist probably gets more but I'm sure it's not the equivalent of $365).

[Kizzie]

Yes, crazy expensive here (just like Internet, cable TV). I didn't realize you were covered to that extent in Germany BB   

Should be that way everywhere. You just can't separate mental and physical health, they are intertwined as we know (and the ACEs and other studies have demonstrated).

[Hope67]

Hi Kizzie,
I also hope that it helps.  It's shocking to hear about the cost involved. 

Hope 

[Kizzie]

Tks Hope     Hugs do help.

I emailed to see if the psychiatrist got the forms and he did but is on holiday until next week so wont be reviewing them for a bit. 

My GP called yesterday to see how I was doing and we ended up in a conversation about how frustrated we both are trying to get me the help I need and how the system is broken. There just aren't enough medical professionals to go around.   We have a shortage of GPs across Canada and psychiatrists are even fewer.  Gah.

[dollyvee]

Hey Kizzie,

This came up this week on my radar and thought it might fit in with what you're dealing with.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/how-do-you-know/202207/serotonin-imbalance-found-not-be-linked-depression?amp

dolly

[Kizzie]

Tks Dolly.  The whole idea of medications/psychedelics  affecting neuroplasticity  (versus serotonin or the like) does seem to be cropping up more.  Here's an article I just found when I was looking into Ketamine you might find interesting:

Vargas, M. V., Meyer, R., Avanes, A. A., Rus, M., & Olson, D. E. (2021). Psychedelics and Other Psychoplastogens for Treating Mental Illness. Frontiers in psychiatry, 12, 727117. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.727117

Conclusion:

The ability to selectively modulate neural circuits using small molecule psychoplastogens opens up new horizons in neuropsychiatry focused on healing pathological neural circuitry rather than masking disease symptoms. This type of circuit-based approach represents a fundamental shift in how we might treat a number of neuropsychiatric diseases and has important implications for the future of CNS drug discovery. Given the history of neuropsychiatry and the intractable nature of brain disorders, we need to take advantage of every available tool in our therapeutic arsenal including both hallucinogenic and non-hallucinogenic psychoplastogens.

Ketamine and psilocybin have demonstrated that it is possible to produce long-lasting beneficial changes in neural circuitry using small molecule drugs, and they have forged a path for future, optimized psychoplastogens to take their place. If we ever hope to heal the nearly 20% of the population suffering from a mental illness, we must find innovative ways to reduce healthcare costs and broaden patient access to psychoplastogenic medicines. Non-hallucinogenic psychoplastogens have the potential to be truly scalable solutions to many of the problems facing neuropsychiatry.

I hope I live long enough to reap the benefits of this exciting new research!!

[dollyvee]

It's actually something that I've seen firsthand recently. A colleague, who is usually fraught with anxiety and second guessing himself, came to work after microdosing psilocybin. It was like meeting a new person that was a lot happier with himself.

On a recent trip to Vancouver, I visited the magic mushroom dispensary and will see. Although, I don't think my issues will resolve until I get what's causing the neuroinflammation under control. Neil Nathan talks about Ketamine resetting the nervous system as well in the book I've been reading, Toxic.

Hope you get a chance to test it.

dolly

[Kizzie]

There is a magic mushroom dispensary in Vancouver?  I mean where else but Vancouver but is it for legal use?

I know you've been doing a lot of research into neuroinflammation - have you come across any mention of the use of hallucinogenic and non-hallucinogenic psychoplastogens to reduce it? 

[dollyvee]

Well, I think it's a grey area but they operate as cafes/stores with business licenses. I think it's like the pot cafes in the 90s/00s.

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6385792

The only thing I've come across is the Neil Nathan excerpt on Ketamine but that was more resetting the nervous system after mycotoxins/Lyme exposure. I think the underlying source of neuroinflammation needs to be addressed first or in conjunction but that's just my thinking.

A quick search and did pick up a few things which are interesting:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165247820303977

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8352634/

[Kizzie]

Whoa, that is some exciting research!

Big Pharma must be in a spin seeing studies like this that threaten so many of their drug lines. I wonder if they're doing their best to get head of the market on these or suppress/criticize the data?  (I'm more than a little distrustful after the whole Purdue oxycontin debacle.) 

Anyway, psychedelics really do seem to have some "magic" to them in terms of  both physical and mental health. Exciting times. 

Interesting about Vancouver mushroom cafes, inevitable next step after cannabis became legal I suppose. 

[Papa Coco]

Wow. This thread is both exciting and frustrating. I'm using clinically infused Ketamine and it's really helping, but I'm told psylocibin works much better and much more permanently. I'm frustrated that I can't participate yet. I'm hesitant to just try to use it at home on my own. I am waiting for the laws to allow a clinician to administer it safely in a way that will guarantee healing for my depression/anxiety.

Dang. We're so close. But like Kizzie, I live in a country (the US) which is owned by Big Pharma, who is NOT about to lose its income from SSRIs. The bullies own the population here. They are making massive money on our illnesses, and they have NO intention on allowing that to change.

[dollyvee]

Interesting about Vancouver mushroom cafes, inevitable next step after cannabis became legal I suppose.

I remember seeing an article in the Guardian about trial research being done at UBC (?) with microdosing LSD I think around 2010 and it caught my interest back then.

I don't know if I've had any "profound effects" from the little bit I've tried recently. I do notice some sleep effects though which I think psilocybin is supposed to effect via serotonin levels. It's like a grogginess at certain times which is not great. Maybe there's more of an overall calmness? But it's hard to tell as I've been detoxing mycotoxins as well as being out of the moldy environment for a couple weeks, which I think helps. 

[Papa Coco]

I've recently subscribed to a magazine called "Psychedelia" My Summer issue just came a few days ago, and it pointed me toward a book, which I just bought on Amazon.com. It arrived Friday. (It's also available on Kindle, but I prefer paper because I'm old).

It's called The Microdosing Guide Book: A step by step manual to improve your physical and mental health through psychedelic medicine by C. J. Spotswood, PMHNP.

I've only read the first chapter so far, (I think it was just published 3 weeks ago). He says he gets all his information from reputable research papers, and just wanted to collect it all into one easy-to-follow guide for those of us who are overwhelmed with information on the coming age of microdosing.