Psychedelic Drugs Don't Make People Crazy, Study Says

Researchers even found some associations between psychedelic drugs and fewer mental health issues.  

 

Contrary to what some anti-drug campaigns will have you believe, dropping acid probably isn't going to make you depressed or psychotic. In fact, psychedelics might actually be associated with better mental health, a new study finds.

Two neuroscientists from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology looked at associations between lifetime psychedelic use and mental health with data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health in the United States. More than 13 percent of the 130,152 randomly selected survey respondents reported they had used psychedelics like LSD, psilocybin, mescaline and peyote at least once in their life. The study found that psychedelic use wasn't significantly associated with serious psychological distress, receiving or needing mental health treatment or psychiatric symptoms. 

The study didn't find any evidence for LSD flashbacks or hallucinations.Psychedelic users were likely to be younger, unmarried, and male, when compared to non-users. They were likely to have used a whole range of illicit drugs, and to have said they enjoy risk-taking. But they were not more likely to have lasting depression, anxiety or psychosis as a result of their drug use. Nor did the study find any evidence for LSD flashbacks or hallucinations.

For the rest of the story: http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-08/psychedelics-dont-give-you-mental-health-problems-study-says?src=SOC&dom=tw