What are Hallucinogenic Effects?

Hallucinogens are drugs that cause hallucinations, that is, profound alterations in the user's perception of reality. Under the influence of hallucinogens, people see images, hear sounds, and feel sensations that seem real but do not exist. Some hallucinogens also produce rapid, intense emotional swings.

Hallucinogens produce their effects by disrupting the interaction of nerve cells and the neurotransmitter serotonin. Distributed throughout the brain and spinal cord, the serotonin system is involved in the control of behavioral, perception, and regulatory systems, including mood, hunger, body temperature, sexual behavior, muscle control, and sensory perception.

Unfortunately, in that campaign, he put psychedelic drugs in the same bag as heroin and cocaine. In addition to LSD, a synthetic drug, the indigenous Mexican peyote, ayahuasca, used in the Amazon, and hallucinogenic mushrooms were outlawed. All of them had been used for millennia for healing purposes.

However, psychedelic drugs are back. In the last ten years, studies have multiplied that indicate that these substances are an effective treatment for the most common mental disorders: depression, anxiety, addictions, and post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Psychedelic drugs are different. They are not stimulants like cocaine or amphetamines, nor sedatives like heroin or cannabis. Instead, they induce an altered state of consciousness in which perception changes. Certain parts of the brain are activated and others are deactivated. The effects of psychedelic drugs are more similar to those produced by practices such as Psychedelics Outlet.

In a study at Johns Hopkins University, smokers were treated with psilocybin, the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms. 80% of the participants stopped smoking and six months later they still did not.

Treatment with antidepressants such as the well-known serotonin reuptake inhibitors do not work in 30% of cases of depression and have serious side effects. In contrast, in a study with these treatment-resistant patients, a single dose of psilocybin, combined with therapy, made depression symptoms disappear for three months. Another similar study with cancer patients suffering from clinical depression found that with a single dose of psilocybin, 80% of them stopped having depression for eight months.

It's not the only one. Ibogaine, a psychedelic drug used in Africa, has been shown to be effective in treating addiction to heroin and other opiates. There are also ongoing studies to use LSD in the treatment of anxiety.

How does this work?

Psychedelic drugs act on the brain's default mode network, the part that controls our inner dialogue, our memories, and our emotions. This part is hyperactive in cases of depression and anxiety, constantly worrying about the past or the future.

These obsessive thoughts can lead to addiction to drugs to alleviate suffering, or in the worst cases to suicide. Psychedelics disable the network by default, thus allowing people to see themselves from another point of view and get out of that vicious circle.

For many of these patients, this is the most significant experience of their lives. The key that allows them to change. It may be time to forget about the image of psychedelic drugs as recreational party drugs, and start looking at them again as medicine.