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Mind & Mood
Magic mushrooms and toad venom
- By Maureen Salamon, Executive Editor, Harvard Women's Health Watch
Could psychedelic drugs help with stubborn cases of depression?
Once linked solely to 1960s counterculture and "bad trips," psychedelic drugs are making a comeback — but not in the way you might expect. Science has wrestled these previously illicit compounds into the lab, finding promise in their ability to beat back depression in people who haven’t found relief with standard treatments.
"Magic" mushrooms, toad venom, and other hallucinogenics are now the focus of leading-edge research, including at Harvard, that could shift the treatment approach from taking daily antidepressants to undergoing a few supervised psychedelic sessions to change how the brain works.
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