We Are Admittedly a Bit Startled by This Medical Case Report About Giving an Elderly Woman With Advanced Alzheimer's a Gigantic Dose of Psychedelic Mushrooms Just to See What Would Happen

https://futurism.com/health-medicine/elderly-woman-high-dose-psychedelic-mushrooms

56 points · 20 comments · view on lemmy.world

20 Comments

marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today · 43 pts · 50d (3 replies)

(Futurism has reached out to the authors about the woman’s ability to consent to the eyebrow-raising treatment given her state.)

This is a weird gripe and seems to be the main argument of the article, as this is true of all treatment of dementia and Alzheimers or truly any severely impaired mental state... which is why the person with power of attorney makes the decision.

That all aside it literally cannot hurt if the patient is truly in 'advanced stages of Alzheimer's' as that is a living hell that absolutely no one should suffer through. Even if it just acts as palliative care during experimentation it should be allowed.

stringere@sh.itjust.works · 10 pts · 50d

What pushes that gripe from weird to absurd is in their own words:

“Consent for the intervention was therefore provided by her legally authorized representative, who was also closely involved in her care and familiar with her medical condition.”

0x0@infosec.pub · 4 pts · 50d (1 reply)

Saying that it cant hurt isnt true though, for all you and me know, it could make that living hell you mentioned even more living.

marxismtomorrow@lemmy.today · 8 pts · 50d

Best case scenario it alleviates symptoms, worst case they relive the same trip constantly until it wears off which at least from the anecdote appears to have not been a bad trip. Either way that's a better existence than being a five year old in a 80 year olds body one minute, and acutely lucid and aware of how little you have control of the next.

terranoid@lemmy.cafe · 19 pts · 50d (8 replies)

5 grams is not that fucking crazy as a treatment. They make it sound like they force fed her a fucking ounce.

And apparently she showed tons of signs of recovery. Sounds like the article writer is much more of a piece of shit for judging doctors doing their fucking job

Itsamelemmy@lemmy.zip · 9 pts · 50d (3 replies)

They also say 5 grams is over twice the normal rec dose. I've always known rec to be 3.5. 2.0 - 2.5 grams probably wouldn't even give more than minor visuals for most people.

I didn't see type of shroom, but I'm guessing cubes as they are the most common.

stringere@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 50d (2 replies)

Cubes, you say?

Asidonhopo@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 50d (1 reply)

I'm assuming they mean psilocybe cubensis

stringere@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 50d

Yeah, but wombat poop is funnier.

404found@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 50d (3 replies)

Was the recovery permanent? I'm too lazy to read the article so if you choose not to tell me then I'll never know the answer and I don't blame you.

boomzilla@programming.dev · -1 pts · 49d

Look for a documentary by "Belly of the Beast" about a US MD travelling to Cuba with his patients against travelling restrictions.

boomzilla@programming.dev · -1 pts · 49d (1 reply)

Nope. But NeuralCIM seems to be when continually prescribed. Questionable if the western world (especially the US) will ever have it, since it was developed in Cuba. At least Canada is conducting a clinical trial, rn.

boomzilla@programming.dev · -1 pts · 49d

[ removed ]

altphoto@lemmy.today · 12 pts · 50d (1 reply)

At retirement you should be allowed.

stringere@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 50d

I already had plans. This just provides solid reasoning.

VitoRobles@lemmy.today · 5 pts · 49d

If I'm in my 90s suffering from a terrible ailment, science the fuck out of me. Want to see if meth and coke shoved in my ass makes me alert? For science.

PixelatedSaturn@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 50d

I would decibeli use a lot of mushrooms if I had Alzheimer's. Or not have it also.

sobchak@programming.dev · 1 pts · 49d

Yeah, pretty weird thing to do if there wasn't prior literature suggesting that dose. This demonstration (it wasn't a trial or experiment), doesn't really carry much scientific value, IMO.

Maggie@thelemmy.club · 1 pts · 49d

Gigantic dose to me sounds like her body weight....

WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 50d (1 reply)

I felt the same way when I read the initial article reporting on this study. It's like experimenting on prisoners. Like yeah, they'll agree to most anything but the conditions that produce that consent are suspect. Interesting results but rough ethically.

HubertManne@piefed.social · 3 pts · 49d

im willing to consent before alzhiemers hits for this treatment.