LSD, magic mushrooms do not affect mental health

Psychedelics like LSD and magic mushrooms, do not put a person at risk of developing mental health problems, claims a new study.

Clinical psychologist Pal- and Ostrokerjan Johansen and neuroscientist Teri Krebs used data from the US National Health Survey (2008-2011) to analyze information from more than 135,000 randomly chosen people, including 19,000 people who had used psychedelics.

The studied the relationship between psychedelic drug use and psychological distress, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts. The researchers found no link.

Johansen said that there was not enough evidence of health problems, with Krebs adding that drug experts consistently rank LSD and psilocybin mushrooms as much less harmful to the individual user and to society compared to alcohol and other controlled substances. In contrast to alcohol, psychedelics are not addictive.

They found that, on a number of measures, the use of psychedelic drugs is correlated with fewer mental health problems, with many people reporting deeply meaningful experiences and lasting beneficial effects from using psychedelics.

However, they added that they could not exclude the possibility that use of psychedelics might have a negative effect on mental health for some individuals or groups, perhaps counterbalanced at a population level by a positive effect on mental health in others.

The results are published in Journal of Psychopharmacology.