3 comments

• hentrep 1 day ago
  Here’s the original manuscript: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroscience/articles/1...
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  • dwroberts 1 day ago
    “Administer 5g psilocybin”. This experiment seems really awful to me.

    Don’t get me wrong, psychedelics can be great but the idea of giving them to someone with an already severely fractured mental state seems unethical, and the gains they talk about are almost certainly going to be temporary in a way that is going to prolong their suffering.

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    • propaganja 1 day ago
      I understand where you're coming from, but strongly disagree with your conclusions. A patient with severe Alzheimer's effectively has nothing to lose, and the same goes for the patient's loved ones. Moreover, I'd argue the risks involved are minor/short-lived, while the gains are potentially priceless, even if temporary.
    • Aboutplants 1 day ago
      First of all 5mg is a standard medical dosage for this medicine and isn’t likely to produce horrible experiences that you would get with much larger doses.

      Second, you think it’s more ethical to let a patient suffer? Are you against emergency surgeries where a patient is unconscious after a car accident?

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      • dwroberts 1 day ago
        The dose in the paper is 5 grams, not mg

        > Second, you think it’s more ethical to let a patient suffer? Are you against emergency surgeries where a patient is unconscious after a car accident?

        My concern is that this induces more suffering. They are going to gain lucidity and then lose it again. That must be deeply distressing (for the family/relatives too). Can’t imagine that psychedelics help with the state of psychosis/hallucinations that advanced Alzheimer’s patients already experience too

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        • sendmarsh 16 hours ago
          From the Frontiers paper: "The patient received 5 g of orally administered psilocybin-containing mushrooms (Enigma strain". i.e., a standard dose of 5g of mushroom.
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          • dwroberts 8 hours ago
            I’m assuming you’ve never taken mushrooms before (on average there is probably ~10mg psilocybin per dried gram, so 5g is 50mg which is on the high end of dosing, definitely not ‘standard’)
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            • jfyi 2 hours ago
              We don't know they were dried. We do know the strain is a particularly potent one that grows in a fashion that might not lend itself to normal water concentrations.

              Really though, weren't you the one conflating mushroom dosages with those of pure psylocibin a moment ago? I find it difficult to believe someone with more than incidental experience would make that mistake.

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              • dwroberts 2 hours ago
                > Really though, weren't you the one conflating mushroom dosages with those of pure psylocibin a moment ago?

                I think you’ve misunderstood. I was quoting the paper, which states 5 grams. 5 grams is a lot of mushrooms, especially for someone who is not compos mentis. 5g implies probably ~50mg of psilocybin, I haven’t been conflating them at all (you measure the amount of mushrooms because obviously you can’t see how much psilocybin is in each one).

                If the paper stated an exact dose of psilocybin this would be a totally different discussion

                Edit: I just realised the quote in my first comment incorrectly states 5g psilocybin- I didn’t ever understand the paper as meaning that, I just wrote that incorrectly. All of my subsequent comments were talking about this as 5g mushrooms - which is still a heavy dose!

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                • jfyi 1 hour ago
                  No worry, cool. Easy to do, sorry to press. It just seemed weirdly aggressive calling the other guy out after that and I felt the need to address it.
            • porksoda 3 hours ago
              I just got to the bottom of your argumentative thread and I just got to say: "says you".
• poulpy123 1 day ago
  I'm quite suspicious of it. Psilocybin has potential for brains that do not work properly, but Alzheimer destroys the brain
• comrade1234 1 day ago
  New York Post? Yeah I don't think so...
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  • sendmarsh 16 hours ago
    It did a relatively accurate report on the original Frontiers paper: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroscience/articles/1...