Post by Sojourn Studios in Magic mushrooms comments

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Not really a fan of your disclaimer at the beginning. Psychosis isn’t really a long-term effect of psychedelic use at all. It can trigger the emergence of underlying neurological disorders (such as schizophrenia) that present in part as psychosis, but that’s exceedingly rare.

I’d argue the main adverse effects to warn about would be 1) psychological trauma, which can be caused by a challenging experience (bad trip), and 2) HPPD (hallucinogen persisting perception disorder) which, while also rare, can happen and causes constant visual disturbances like shifting or static.

Just played through the whole game and really liked it too, despite the inaccuracies!

huanantonioo3 days ago

I have a moral duty to warn against this particular danger, because I do not want anyone to experience such a situation. And yes, it is real even though it is not common.

Here is an example of what I mean:

"This — the psychosis followed by the deep depression — was something completely different. And it was triggered by her use of psychedelics.

Eight months earlier, the woman had tried hallucinogenic mushrooms for the first time with friends and had such a great time that she took them again the next day. The second time, though, something went terribly wrong.

“She had a full blown psychotic episode for the first time in her life,” said Dr. Nemeroff, who published the woman’s story as a case report in The American Journal of Psychiatry in December. Her friends, who took the same drugs she did both days, had no lasting ill effects."

Source: Psychedelics Are a Promising Therapy, but They Can Be Dangerous for Some - The New York Times

Sojourn Studios3 days ago

I agree that there's a responsibility to disseminate harm reduction and inform people, but psychosis is still not the long-term adverse effect (even in the case study you linked). The long-term adverse effect for that patient was major depressive disorder.

If you're going to inform people, just make sure you're accurate. Use studies with better statistical power and a larger subject population, because case studies are literal anecdote - peer-reviewed anecdote, but still anecdote.

Here's a better analysis, as a fairly comprehensive literature review, that gives more detailed long-term adverse effects: Long-term effects of psychedelic drugs: A systematic review

Here are their conclusions:

Sustained changes in personality/attitudes, depression, spirituality, affect/mood, anxiety, wellbeing, substance use, meditative practices, and mindfulness were documented.

There are no mentions anywhere of persistent psychosis. At most, there are acute episodes while under the effects of the substance, and a very small risk of underlying mental illnesses like schizophrenia surfacing.

I apologize too if this seems pedantic; I'm a PhDc with a special interest in neuroscience and neuropharmacology, so these details are important.

itch.io

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