Depression An Innovative, Drug-Free Essay

Pollan mentions the idea that it is difficult to try a drug like psilocybin unless it has been proven to work and is not legal. I do not like the idea of opting for treatments that have yet to be proven successful. However, many of the patients in Pollan’s article do not mind that it has not been proven to work. Unlike the majority of the patients in Pollan’s article, I am not suffering from a terminal illness and therefore I do not feel pushed enough or like I have exhausted all my options. Pollan proposes the possibility of psychedelics to treat people with severe anxiety or addictions (38). If I were to ever reach a point of my life where I had a terminal illness, unmanageable anxiety, or an addiction, I would not be opposed to trying psychedelics if they have been

Depression is a common and serious mood disorder. It’s more than just feeling down or sad in response to life’s struggles and setbacks, depression causes people to lose pleasure from daily life, can increase the risk of many health problems, and can even be serious enough to lead to suicide. The disease must be given more attention and treated as a global public health priority. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 7.6 percent of people over the age of 12 have depression in any 2-week period. Depression is also the second most common cause of disability worldwide after back pain,according to a review of research.

“Recent data estimate the overall prevalence of depression at about 11.1% of the American population, or nearly 35 million individuals (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). A predictive models suggest that up to 50% of the population will experience at least one episode of depression during their lives” (Life Extension, 2014). Depression has negatively affected the lives of many individuals throughout the world. Look around you there may even be someone close to you that is demonstrating signs of its stifling affects. Depression does not discriminate with its suffocating

Millions of Americans suffer from clinical depression each year. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) (2017), 322 million people are affected by depression around the world. Concerning industrialized Western world countries, it remains as the number one psychological disorder affecting its population (WHO, 2017). Most clinicians begin primarily with prescribing either pharmacologic or psychotherapy interventions. With billions of dollars spent in revue on treating depression (Chisholm, Sweeny, and Sheehan, 2016), exercise used as treatment in reaction to mental illness is often overlooked by mainstream health care professionals. However, it has been proved by recent research exercise acts as both a preventive and reactive

Although prescribed use of psilocybin is rare nowadays for medicinal purposes; many tests have been done on its medicinal uses in patients with personality disorders. Some tests have shown a noticeable reduction in obsessive compulsive disorder as a result of psilocybin use. Psilocybin has also been tested and is sometimes administered to cancer patients and has been proven to ease mental stress and the emotional baggage caused by cancer by changing the patient’s perspective on his/her situation and life in general. This compound has also been proven to reduce the pain resulting from cluster headaches in 85 % of patients tested and distanced the frequency of the attacks in 96% of patients.

The purpose of this section is to give voice and in a sense an opportunity for suffers of depression to express what depression feels like, the challenges that treatments or their failure pose on their lives, goals, personal sustainability, a space to express frustration but also hope.

Jyllian Kemsley Ph.D. is a chemical research scientist, and scientific research contributor to the CENtral Science’s Safety Zone blog that seeks to “cover science and technology, business and industry, government and policy, education, and employment aspects of the chemistry field”. Her article entitled “Psychedelic Compounds like Ecstasy May Be Good for More than Just a High", reports on the revolutionary research theory within the field of medicine that seeks to examine the prospective benefits of using psychoactive compounds in treating a number of mental conditions. The piece is well written, and presents a number of background studies that have evaluated the efficiency of these

Another clinical study of psilocybin done at the University of Arizona and led by Francisco Morena, was conducted in 2007 to evaluate the effects of psilocybin on the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder in nine subjects. The researchers addressed two questions: does oral ingestion of psilocybin lead to an acute decrease in OCD symptoms and is what dose is required to demonstrate significant reduction in symptoms. The results revealed that when administered in a supportive clinical environment, psilocybin was safe and well tolerated. The psilocybin was associated with “transient symptomatic reduction of OCD symptoms in subjects with treatment-resistance OCD”( ). Although there is an understanding of the psychedelic mechanism of action of psilocybin, it’s not clear exactly which receptors and pathways are involved in mediating the anti-obsessional responses. The intent of the study was not to conduct psychedelic-facilitated therapy, however five of the subjects readily described their experiences as very psychologically and spiritually enriching and four of the subjects reported profound positive transcendental experiences such as exploration of other planets, visiting past-life reincarnations and interacting with deities. The results also showed most subjects reporting symptom reduction experiences a period of relief that extending far beyond the session. In summary, although there are some gaps in the understanding of how the psilocybin interacts to reduce OCD

The cause of Clinical depression has long been a mystery to physicians and researchers. Many different theories have been proposed, but no conclusive evidence has been put forth. However, most of what we know about depression stems from the results of certain drugs which have been successful in treating the clinically depressed. These anti--depressants have led to the assumption that depression is most likely due to a chemical imbalance (of neurotransmitters) which somehow leads to the symptoms of depression. To try and write a paper on all the theories of depression would be endless, as would be a study on all the different types of

A small feasibility trial, involving 12 patients who have treatment-resistant depression, reveal that the compound psilocybin helped reduce symptoms of depression in half of the participants at three months post-treatment, Science Daily reported. Psilocybin is a hallucinogenic compound found in magic mushrooms. The findings show that five of the patients were still free of depression after three months

Depression is a widespread issue in today’s world. It can be caused by abuse, conflict, a sudden change in one’s life, and much more. The number one cause of depression is stress. Cannabis, or marijuana, has been used to treat depression dating back to the year 1621 with doctors in India using it to treat depression in their patients. THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, was shown to change negative images or emotions in the minds of the patients who smoked marijuana. Many patients stated that it took them to another world, a place where they felt comfortable and the feeling of depression was obsolete. The sad part is that since marijuana is still classified as a

Those diagnosed with depression face an atrocious future; fading into a silent void. They lose their voice as they begin to deteriorate and no one listens to their deafening silence. With no one to aid in their recovery, they slip further and further away from the cheerful world around them. By the time someone notices, it is too late; desolation has already seized them. If only someone would have detected the silence earlier, and acknowledged it as a cry for help, would the dejected individual have had a chance to recover. In this case, silence truly does speak louder than

feelings can linger for years. Depression is a social disorder characterized by a depressed mood

Depression is the most common of all psychological disorders, affecting 100 million people worldwide. The depression ranges from mild feelings of uneasiness, sadness, and apathy to intense suicidal despair. (Kasschau) If left untreated, it could lead the

The term depression is widely misused in today’s society. All human beings experience periods in life where they are sad for a relatively short period of time, which is considered normal. Those who experience sadness for extended periods may be suffering from depression. Two terms used to reference the classifications of depression, are Major Depressive Disorder, and Dysthymia. Individual diagnosis of these classifications is dependent on the length of time, and severity of symptoms experienced by the individual. The causes for these depressive states can be due to genetics or the insufficient production of neurotransmitters, which provide the brain with the data necessary to regulate one's psychological well being. Two examples