Pharmaceuticals vs other drugs + therapy

I am wondering what your opinions are on the argument of Pharmaceuticals compared to other drugs that are often marketed as supplements and therapy alongside these "milder" drugs.

From what I can tell, there are a great deal of drugs that have only a few side-effects, and those side effects are transient. I am talking about drugs such as piracetams and a few of the other racetams, high dose methylene blue, low dose psychedelics, and the various plants that have significant effect on the brain.

If you go to pubmed, there are a wealth of articles about how effective piracetam is at treating depression and anxiety, and how it is completely safe with absolutely no long-term side effects. Yet, the first choice for depression and anxiety is SSRIs which are know to have significant side-effects, can be toxic, and can even have long lasting effects, especially on libido.

The nootropics like piracetam work by stimulating electrical activity in the brain, and potentially encouraging the brain to change (I think more research is need on the neuroplastic effects in humans, though).

Drugs like SSRIs and Benzos only increase the inhibitory functions of your brain, allowing you to sidestep the problem, not overcome it.

To me, the benefits of the nootropic drugs and the research behind them should indicate that they should at least be prescribed as an initial try or something at least to see if it will work for the patient.

It seems to me that nootropics should be the way to go, and especially useful if coupled with therapy, so why do you think SSRIs and Benzos are prescribed instead even for minor issues when they are very dangerous drugs?

brainslug wrote:I am wondering what your opinions ...low dose psychedelics, and the various plants that have significant effect on the brain...

"Previous studies have suggested that psilocybin can improve people's sense of emotional wellbeing and even reduce depression in people with anxiety. This is consistent with our finding that psilocybin decreases mPFC activity, as many effective depression treatments do. The effects need to be investigated further, and ours was only a small study, but we are interested in exploring psilocybin's potential as a therapeutic tool." http://www.popularmechanics.co.za/sci-t ... g-studies/


I searched "magic mushrooms and depression", the studies say it works. I just grabbed the one above link but there are many on the subject.


I can see the T.V ads now "ask your doctor if some cheap mushrooms and therapy works better than the multi billion dollar a year pharmaceutical products we normaly sell".

Side effects may include laughing your ass off, lots of pretty colors and music sounds just fantastic.

I didnt realy finish this post. I think mushroom therapy, to give it a name, would be a way of resetting a depressed persons way of thinking like say learning to laugh again and also the expirience people call mind expansion is a chance to re-pattern the negative thought cycle and break free of it with the right guidence. I don't think this will be explored much by mainstream medicine due to the stigma of recreational drug use, the war on drugs ect...

But think of the millions of kids lining up at the nurses office in the "drug free school zone" for there amphetamines and methylphenidate (ritalin). I don't get it.