alt.hn

2/19/2026 at 9:21:27 PM

A psychedelic medicine performs well against depression

 https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2026/02/19/a-psychedelic-medicine-performs-well-against-depression

by vinni2

2/19/2026 at 10:07:53 PM

The fact that they are using a synthetic version likely means they have constructed a molecule that’s patented or otherwise IP protected. I’m always torn about this, because it means that a cheap, globally available compound (psylocibin) which was what inspired this company to begin with when the founders used it on their son will remain medically inaccessible, possibly at Schedule I in the US, while this startup’s compound may end up being covered by insurance and rake in piles of cash.

I get that it takes a lot of money to prove the efficacy of drugs. But there should be a better way to open some of these chemicals up and acknowledge the community that has worked hard, often at great personal and reputational risk, to demonstrate that these well-known drugs offer powerful options to treat a range of psychiatric illnesses.

by _alternator_

2/19/2026 at 11:03:33 PM

It's just psilocybin - the formulation is protected, but it's just magic mushrooms. They're studying doses of 1mg, 10mg, and 25mg. 25mg is roughly equivalent to a beginner dose of 2.5g. They should definitely do a followup of 25, 35, and 50mg, because the higher doses are most commonly associated with the most benefits across other studies that have been done.

It's never going to be a major moneymaker - you rarely encounter people who want to continue abusing it. 1 dose is sufficient for 6 or more months of mitigated symptoms, sometimes even allowing people to entirely escape negative thought patterns and depression. Psilocybin induces new synaptic pathways, helps balance out or suppress obsessive loops, so in combination with positive reinforcement in lifestyle patterns, habits, and changing environments, a single high dose psilocybin experience can radically alter someone's mental health and outlook for the better.

The literature is fascinating - one of the safest drugs known to science, yet one of the least exploited for medical or scientific purposes. There's a whole vast wealth of good data that will come from research like this, it's exciting.

by observationist

2/19/2026 at 11:18:02 PM

> positive reinforcement in lifestyle patterns, habits, and changing environments ... can radically alter someone's mental health and outlook for the better.

Edited out the least important step

by RupertSalt

2/19/2026 at 11:25:26 PM

Even without the lifestyle changes, you can get a 6+ month mitigation of symptoms, but without the lifestyle changes, the symptoms will return, and often it's an indicator of unhealthy lifestyle as opposed to a mental illness. Unfortunately, mental health and treatment with drugs ignores that all important bit. Maybe you are healthy, and are having a perfectly normal response to stressful, negative conditions, and don't need drugs. In the case of shrooms, it can suppress the obsessive loops and focus on being stuck for a long enough period that people can escape, but often that escape route has to be pointed out by a third party.

Unethical practices would be possible with psychedelics, still - don't provide the escape route, just keep people coming back for super expensive, slightly underdosed psychedelic trips every six months to mitigate symptoms.

by observationist

2/20/2026 at 12:16:31 AM

2.5g is a strong dose even of B+ strains

by bethekidyouwant

2/20/2026 at 3:29:20 AM

Yeah, talking about grams without taking about what kind of mushroom is very out of date IMO. 2.5g could be anything from a light sensation to over the top potent. Just look at the results of the latest Denver Psychedelic Cup to get a sense of range.

https://www.canva.com/design/DAG4IrghoIg/inPxQbZk0XtnQU_lB92...

by awithrow

2/19/2026 at 10:40:14 PM

It's a myth that you need a novel molecule to get a patent on a medicine.

A company can develop a formulation of generic, off-patent compounds and get FDA approval for that patented formulation.

Even old off-patent drugs are often brought back in new, on-patent formulations that can't be sold generically until the expiration of the patents on the formulation that was approved.

So even if they used psilocybin, they would get a patent on their formulation and get FDA approval for that formulation.

by Aurornis

2/19/2026 at 10:30:32 PM

The same thing with Ketamine. As an i.v.-Medication dirt cheap, but the same drug in a nasal spray suddenly 500$(Spravato)

by hermanzegerman

2/19/2026 at 10:15:23 PM

You just described 150 years of Big Pharma Law.

Pharma, sprang up from taking wondrous compounds found in nature and isolated them or refined them into new compounds that they could patent, market, and sell to consumers.

Ibuprofen, for example, is crude oil.

by reactordev

2/19/2026 at 10:23:20 PM

Yet Ibuprofen is so easy to make that only 6 plants make it worldwide and when one goes offline the shortages are felt throughout the world. Might be a bit more difficult than just crude oil

by hermanzegerman

2/19/2026 at 10:24:27 PM

6 plants are allowed to make it. Everyone else thought the licensing fee was too high.

Unless you are referring to natural botanical plants, in which case, Pine Trees and turpentine is a good alternative found. IANAL but it would still need to find a way around the Ibuprofen compound patent.

by reactordev

2/19/2026 at 10:45:50 PM

> 6 plants are allowed to make it. Everyone else thought the licensing fee was too high

What licensing fee? It's an old, generic medicine. Anyone who wanted to set up an Ibuprofen manufacturing plant could do so relatively easily.

The reason more plants aren't coming online is that Ibuprofen is a couple pennies per pill at retail prices. There isn't money in making more ibuprofen.

by Aurornis

2/19/2026 at 11:02:47 PM

If there wouldn't be money in it, they wouldn't have invested 200 Millions in a new plant in 2017

by hermanzegerman

2/19/2026 at 11:12:34 PM

Then there must have been a market opportunity.

I bet there won't be much opportunity left after that plant comes online.

by Aurornis

2/19/2026 at 10:33:56 PM

What licensing fee? There aren't any patent protections on Ibuprofen anymore. It's a generic for a very long time.

Also last time there was a shortage, one american BASF plant went down and they had trouble for almost a year before they could resume production

by hermanzegerman

2/19/2026 at 11:15:50 PM

"Ibuprofen, for example, is crude oil."

In what sense? Ibuprofen is a specific chemical compound, crude oil is anything but that - it's a mixture of a huge number of chemicals.

I don't think the pharma industry is a moral exemplar either. But this seems like a simple error that will just distract from your point. Others in the thread have given better examples.

by ajb

2/19/2026 at 10:52:51 PM

FWIW I at least am willing to pay someone else to make my Ibuprofen from the crude oil so I don’t have to. Sounds like it’d be messy.

by jrmg

2/20/2026 at 11:32:58 AM

I'd go for something targeted than something that is pedled by preachy drug dealers personally.

Can't say how many times I heard of anecdotal stories where a user just flipped personality out of the blue, it kinda steals away emotional resolution and wisdom from resolving issues if for example trauma is related to another person.

by vagrantstreet

2/19/2026 at 10:21:41 PM

Devil's advocate suggests that a synthetic can be produced the same way every time where a cultured plant might have varying levels of the active compound in the plant. That makes it difficult to prescribe doses. As an example, suggesting a patient take 1 cap and 2 stems will be problematic for accurate dosing.

Conspirator's advocate says that bigPharma has synthesized and patented every active plant compound so that keeping the actual plants scheduled is to their benefit.

by dylan604

2/19/2026 at 10:30:55 PM

I'm fairly certain it's possible to extract psylocibin from the murshroom, giving the same advantages that the synthetic would have!

Edit0: for a more thorough look: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8247/18/3/380

by dmbche

2/19/2026 at 10:33:04 PM

that's generally much more expensive

by adgjlsfhk1

2/19/2026 at 10:53:30 PM

Than RnD for a brand new synthetic drug?

by dmbche

2/19/2026 at 11:24:19 PM

as if that's a guaranteed win. The low hanging fruit was to recreate what is already in nature. Creating something brand new never seen before would be a greenfield project that I'm sure most of bigPharma is not a fan of.

by dylan604

2/19/2026 at 11:40:28 PM

I'm not certain I catch your drift - I'm saying the RnD work they did to synthesize COM360 or whatever it's called is probably more expensive than using known means to synthesize/extract psylocibin (as psylocybin was first synthesized in the 50's)

by dmbche

2/20/2026 at 12:09:13 AM

Sounds to me as if you're now suggesting researching a new way to make a synthetic drug where before I read it as researching a new drug nobody has found yet

by dylan604

2/20/2026 at 12:18:19 AM

I'm not sure what you mean either way!

Have a good one I don't think we are in disagreement

by dmbche

2/20/2026 at 2:08:04 AM

In the immortal words of Scott Alexander [1],

> I used to think that the alternative medicine people were overestimating how evil Big Pharma was. But now I know that’s not right.

> Now I know they’re underestimating it.

> If it were discovered tomorrow that potatoes cured cancer, then people wouldn’t “suppress” this “natural” remedy. Two years from now there would be an ultrapurified potato extract called POTAXOR™®© that was, on closer examination, physically and chemically identical to mashed potatoes. But these mashed potatoes would be mashed in a giant centrifuge by scientists with five Ph. Ds each. Any time someone got cancer, their doctor would prescribe POTAXOR™®© and charge $6,000 per dose, and the patient would get better, and the thought of just going out and eating a potato would never occur to anybody. Not to the doctor, who doesn’t want to sound like the idiot who tells her cancer patients to eat potatoes. Not to the FDA, who doesn’t know whether potatoes might be contaminated with lead or potato fungus or ketchup or God-knows-what. And certainly not to the patient. They would have to pay 60 cents for a potato at the supermarket, but if they have a good enough insurance the POTAXOR™®© is free!

> This system, bizarre as it is, is your guarantee against the pharmaceutical companies suppressing a promising new natural medication. Your insurance company pays $300 on fish oil, and in exchange you go to sleep at night secure that no one has discovered that potatoes cure cancer but decided to cover it up to protect their bottom line. Good deal? Given the current health system, it’s better than you had any right to expect.

Potatoes aren't on Schedule 1; that makes this situation suck a little more. But probably the alternative scenario is just the treatment remaining illegal forever.

[1] https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/06/15/fish-now-by-prescripti...

by voidmain

2/20/2026 at 7:50:41 AM

> If it were discovered tomorrow

It wouldn't be discovered without the profit motive created by the granted monopoly

by gosub100

2/20/2026 at 7:44:51 AM

In silicon wafer manufacturing, water is one of the ingredients. I doubt you could produce it at your home with sufficient purity to be a replacement.

If I took shrooms, there is a nonzero chance I'd have a psychotic episode that could be fatal.

by gosub100

2/19/2026 at 10:46:33 PM

What people get wrong is that you don't just trip balls and get cured. Re-integration therapy is vital for lasting effects. Grabbing some shrooms and digging in is recreation, which is perfectly fine, but don't fool yourself or anyone else by suggesting it's for treatment.

by zamalek

2/20/2026 at 1:07:47 PM

I was a depressed teenager a long time ago and I am almost certain mushrooms made things worse.

I didn't need mushrooms. I needed therapy, friends, a social life, a sex life, goals, something to look forward to in the real world.

All I found on mushrooms at the time were horrible existential loops that just made things more hopeless. I would read about people having these peak wonderful experiences or Mckenna alien experiences and just get more depressed that even the mushrooms didn't help me.

It is almost blasphemous in this space to say what actually ended up changing my life were SSRIs. A little prozac fixed something that was just chemically wrong in my head.

What seems obvious is there is enormous variability in people's brain chemistry so the tool to fix the problem has to be quite specific for the individual.

by topocite

2/20/2026 at 12:13:43 AM

Yes. For example, IV Ketamine can yield not only immediate relief in a chemical sense, the treatment itself results in a fully-aware, balls-tripping, metaphor and symbolism-filled, time and space-warping experience in an entirely fictional space. With thoughtful guidance prior-to and after each experience, a series of them can, for example repeat a message until you "get it," or each may deliver a component of a profoundly larger message when they are combined, weeks later. What you do with it all will determine what you get from it.

by OldSchool

2/19/2026 at 10:47:34 PM

I think there's simply so much value in being able to see the same thing in so many different perspectives that you never have considered possible at all in your life before.

by mewpmewp2

2/20/2026 at 12:27:29 AM

This is particularly true of a deep psychedelic experience "inside" with IV Ketamine.

Your own internal processing will still determine how you perceive a perspective change, but specific to this idea in particular, you may for example, within, suddenly find it obvious to think of things as being made of something different than in the outside world reality (and this sort of "change of bases" may reveal some kind of truth not otherwise visible.) You may see something as formed of language instead of molecules and atoms, or vice-versa.

by OldSchool

2/19/2026 at 10:52:07 PM

As someone who accidentally discovered the anti-depressive effects of psilocybin in my early 20s, I approve this message!

by jesse__

2/19/2026 at 10:02:49 PM

I believe there have been other studies that prove this for not just the synthetic. Yet we are all supposed to accept the "facts" that psilocybin (and cannabis) are considered schedule 1 illicit substances (high potential for abuse and no currently accepted medical use).

by candiddevmike

2/19/2026 at 10:30:51 PM

At that point it’s not "other studies", it’s more "tons of studies". It’s truly an exponential number of studies that had the same conclusions in the last 5-10 years.

And N=1 but I can say without any doubt that LSD (and a pretty low dose at that, 50ug at once plus some microdosing) played an immense role at recovering from burnout. It was like night and day even after such a low dose that I _knew_ I recovered.

Those are amazing and powerful but also potentially dangerous substances and it’s a crime that we don’t allow everyone to get the benefits by, if not freely legalize it, at least adding those in the medical toolbox.

by pjerem

2/19/2026 at 10:44:26 PM

"I believe with the advent of acid we discovered a new way to think, and it had to do with piecing together new thoughts in your mind. …

Why is it that people think it's so evil? What is it about it that—that is—scares people so deeply? Even the guy that invented it. What is it? Because they're afraid that there's more to reality than they have confronted. That there are doors that they're afraid to go in, and they don't want us to go in there either, because if we go in, we might learn somethin' that they don't know. And that makes us a little out of their control"

--Ken Kasey

by dylan604

2/20/2026 at 1:36:58 AM

Ha! I heard that in his voice.

by amanaplanacanal

2/19/2026 at 10:56:48 PM

and the worse is (contemporany) research on these drugs being slowed down by the field getting the rare licenses to study something broad as "depression cure"... some types of pyschodelics are really effective to treat specific stuff like post-traumatic anxiety of unexpected events like the 9/11. with rates of prognosis improvement beyond 80%. Katherine MacLean has a nice critic on what are the politics/dynamics of this field

by luqtas

2/20/2026 at 1:21:20 AM

> Katherine MacLean has a nice critic on what are the politics/dynamics of this field

Would love to read, what's it called?

by wasabi991011

2/19/2026 at 10:06:39 PM

It is outrageous that both cannabis and psilocybin are scheduled 1 drugs and also completely legal to buy in certain locales.

by reverend_gonzo

2/20/2026 at 3:07:48 AM

I'll raise you one better. Cannabis is Schedule I, that means per the DEA there are no known safe medical uses for the drug. But if you synthesize out the primary active ingredient and bundle it in capsule, the DEA happily recognizes that as a mere Schedule III drug, and you get get a prescription for it even in states where cannabis remains illegal at the state level. It goes by the brand name Marinol.

by tpmoney

2/19/2026 at 10:55:52 PM

> and also completely legal to buy in certain locales

I'm not trying to be pedantic, but it's important to understand that according to federal law it's not actual legal to possess them regardless of which state you're in.

They're still illegal under federal law. A person could technically be prosecuted at the federal level even in a state that doesn't have state-level laws against it, though that's unlikely in practice.

by Aurornis

2/19/2026 at 11:05:11 PM

while at the same time, Fentanyl is a schedule II drug.

by NickC25

2/19/2026 at 10:51:40 PM

> Yet we are all supposed to accept the "facts" that psilocybin (and cannabis) are considered schedule 1 illicit substances (high potential for abuse and no currently accepted medical use).

To be clear, this compound they're testing is also a Schedule 1 drug. COMP360 is their name for their psilocybin formulation. It's not a separate chemical, it is literally psilocybin.

Schedule 1 drugs can be used in clinical trials. Positive results in a clinical trial does not automatically remove the Schedule 1 designation. The medication is not approved yet and the clinical trial results are preliminary.

by Aurornis

2/19/2026 at 10:43:48 PM

This paper is an incredible read: TESCREAL hallucinations: Psychedelic and AI hype as inequality engines

https://akjournals.com/view/journals/2054/7/S1/article-p22.x...

  > "Researchers have called attention to the ways that the hype promoting psychedelics as miracle cures 
  replicates preceding claims about the efficacy of SSRIs and other antidepressants in prior decades. 
  As the drug historian David Herzberg articulated in conversation with UC Berkeley's The Microdose:

    There’s been an enormous amount of money invested in psychedelics as people hope that they 
    can be the real Prozac in the same way that Prozac hoped it would be the real Valium and 
    Valium would be the real barbiturates, which would be the real morphine. 
    There’s a long history of hoping that maybe this time, it’s not so complicated; 
    maybe there is a simple switch to change people without having to change any [other] aspect of their [lives].

  While others have noted similarities between the earlier SSRI hype and the ongoing hype for psychedelic medications,
   the rhetoric of psychedelic hype is tinged with utopian and magico-religious aspirations that have no parallel 
   in the discourse surrounding SSRIs or other antidepressants. I argue that this utopian discourse provides insight 
   into the ways that global financial and tech elites are instrumentalizing psychedelics as one tool 
   in a broader world-building project that justifies increasing material inequality. 
   This elite project reveals how medicalized psychedelics can potentially undermine the very prosocial and 
   pro-environmental outcomes that the field's funders insist psychedelics will promote. 
   To understand the envisioned role of psychedelics within this elite project, this paper analyzes a different 
   parallel hype, revealing correspondences between the psychedelic industry hype and the concurrent 
   hype surrounding artificial intelligence (AI), including the Large Language Models (LLMs) that power ChatGPT. 
   The presence of these parallels is understandable when one considers their underlying affinities, 
   like two blooms from one plant: the same Silicon Valley and venture capital forces are investing 
   enormous amounts of capital to develop both as cultivars in their own image, 
   selecting for desired traits that further the existing socioeconomic order.

by nosuchthing

2/20/2026 at 12:06:57 AM

”maybe there is a simple switch to change people without having to change any [other] aspect of their [lives]”

The difference with psychedelics is that they enable and manifest those behavioral changes.

by cluckindan

2/20/2026 at 7:58:24 AM

If the risk of getting a minor drug possession charge was the only thing keeping me from curing a serious disease I wouldn't hesitate for a second.

by gosub100

2/19/2026 at 11:54:05 PM

I know it will not "solve" every case of depression, however, I really wish people who don't already, would try going outside and/or exercising regularly.

Anecdotal I know, but it seems like nearly every person I know who does both are rarely if ever depressed.

While the people I've known who do struggle with depression rarely if ever leave home.

Again, I know this isn't a catch all for all cases, however, I've seen far too many people turn to meds/substances when lifestyle changes could be all that's required.

It's also a couple of things that only have positive side effects as opposed to most of the medicated approaches people take.

by SunshineTheCat

2/20/2026 at 12:02:05 AM

Do you think perhaps it is possible that you have cause and effect reversed?

When suffering from depression lifestyle changes are HARD, especially when dealing with co-morbid mental or physical illness. Conversely a healthy adult of sound mind and body shouldn’t have too much problem deciding that exercise and going outside is beneficial, then just… doing it.

by natpalmer1776

2/20/2026 at 7:31:11 AM

There are many dimensions and possible pitfalls here. Uncertain mechanism of action, objectionable comparison arms, the high-bar goal of resistant depression that might lead to failure. This seems like a mix situation of a new type of antidepressant (like agomelatin which was of modest effect) and cannabis (which is traded as painkiller but people use it for recreation).

by tsoukase

2/19/2026 at 10:27:56 PM

Does anyone know if it is just synthetic psilocybin or a psilocybin-like molecule?

by yewenjie

2/19/2026 at 9:55:20 PM

Obligatory mirror:

https://archive.ph/rIPvX

by helterskelter

2/19/2026 at 11:36:48 PM

Don't use archive.ph. It's still DDoSing gyrovague.com

by cpncrunch

2/20/2026 at 4:49:02 AM

What's the preferred mirror?

by helterskelter

2/20/2026 at 5:15:11 AM

I havent found any. I just search for non paywalled alternatives now.

by cpncrunch

2/20/2026 at 7:59:58 AM

Why does it matter

by gosub100

2/20/2026 at 5:23:25 PM

Why does it matter that you're DDoSing someone's website when you use it? Are you seriously asking that question?

by cpncrunch