5 Amazing Things Scientists Have Discovered About Psychedelics – Alternet.org

Psychedelics have the potential to treat cancers, addiction and psychological traumas.

Here are some of the coolest things scientists have discovered about psychedelics over the years.

1. LSD can mitigate end-of-life anxiety.

The results of the first clinical study of the therapeutic use of LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) in humans in more than 40 years were published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease in March. They show that LSD can promote statistically significant reductions in anxiety for people coming to terms with their own impending demise.

Swiss psychiatrist Peter Gasser and his colleagues conducted the double-blind, placebo-controlled study, sponsored by the non-profit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). They tracked 12 people who were near the end of life as they attended LSD-assisted psychotherapy sessions. In his report, Gasser concluded that the study subjects’ anxiety “went down and stayed down.”

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