Can Psychedelics Cure OCD?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/can-psychedelics-cure-ocd_us_57a34716e4b0c863d4004453
Psilocybin, along with LSD and most other psychedelics, was classified in 1970 as a Schedule I drug, defined as having high risk of abuse and addiction and no medical use. While this was perhaps an understandable reaction to the excesses of the Woodstock era, the reality, as a large population study recently concluded, is that “psychedelics are not known to harm the brain or other body organs or to cause addiction.” Another recent study found that people who’ve used psychedelics actually had a significantly reduced risk of severe psychological problems compared to those who’ve never tried these drugs. The world of psychedelics is rapidly growing, with products like ayahuasca being used by millions of people. If you’re wondering What are the Ayahuasca Analog Plants?, click here to learn more.
As for medical use, a growing body of recent research suggests psychedelics have a capacity for rapidly effecting lasting, positive change that science simply hasn’t found elsewhere. For example, NYU investigators report that after a single dose of psilocybin, cancer patients “almost uniformly experienced a dramatic reduction in existential anxiety and depression… and the changes lasted a year or more and in some cases were permanent.” Johns Hopkins researchers found that psilocybin enabled 80% of long-term smokers to quit-more than double the rate of the most effective current treatments. University of New Mexico researchers reported that a single psilocybin dose dramatically reduced drinking among alcoholics throughout their study’s eight month follow up period. Psychedelics have also shown tremendous promise in treating severe depression and PTSD.