A single dose of psilocybin, paired with psychological support, provides months of relief from chronic suicidal thoughts in new study. Psychedelic-assisted therapy tends to offer lasting relief for individuals who have not responded to standard psychiatric treatments.
A single dose of psilocybin provides months of relief from chronic suicidal thoughts in new study
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**A single dose of psilocybin provides months of relief from chronic suicidal thoughts in new study**
A recent study published in [*The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry*](https://doi.org/10.4088/jcp.26m16338) suggests that a single dose of psilocybin, paired with psychological support, may rapidly and safely reduce chronic suicidal thoughts in adults with severe depression. The findings provide evidence that psychedelic-assisted therapy tends to offer lasting relief for individuals who have not responded to standard psychiatric treatments.
The researchers found large and statistically significant reductions in suicidal thoughts by the primary endpoint at week three. Participants experienced an average drop of almost fourteen points on the suicidal ideation scale. The improvement was rapid, with significant reductions appearing just one week after the dosing session. These benefits were highly durable, maintaining their significance through the final twelve-week assessment.
By the third week, seventy-five percent of the participants met the criteria for a positive anti-suicidal response, meaning their suicidal ideation scores dropped by at least half. Additionally, forty-five percent of the participants achieved full remission of their suicidal thoughts. Depression scores followed a similar trajectory, dropping significantly and remaining low across the entire twelve-week follow-up period.
https://www.psychiatrist.com/jcp/efficacy-safety-single-dose-psilocybin-chronic-suicidal-ideation-open-label-trial/
This was an open label trial. They knew what they were getting.
They were not screened to require any psychological support, just that they had persistant suicidal thoughts in presence of attempted drug treatment. (unless I misread).
They had really quite significant input to possibly drive placebo effect, or directly treat indirectly the thoughts by having a treatment effect – a total of 6 hours beforehand and 16 hours in 4 sessions after and during. ‘You are worth enough for someone to spend 24 hours trying to help you’ is a powerful drug.
There is some risk of people engaging just to get treatment, and maximising their symptoms beforehand.
It is a shame suicide reduction is so damn hard to attempt to measure effectiveness as the number needed to treat, even for perfectly effective treatment is stupidly high and attempting to select a tight group makes the numbers too small.
Never quite sure about suicidal ideation. For instance, I’ll go into a shop and ask ‘Have you got product x?’ and if they say no sometimes I’ll say ‘Oh well, I’ll just have to kill myself’ but I never mean it. It’s almost more like Tourette’s than suicidal ideation.
doesn’t surprise me, an acid trip relived me of them kind of thoughts for months, the peak of the trip was unpleasant but worth it, I believe this stuff needs researching further, If psychedelic assisted therapy can help people with treatment resistant depression, I think it could reduce the amount of people stuck in depression.