Thursday, May 17, 2007

House of Psycedelic Drugs


I hate the TV show House. Not because I find that it's innaccurate as lots of people do. It's just the character of House is so abbrasive. Someone needs to punch him and then kick him in his bad leg while he's down. The wife enjoys House and therefore I am forced to endure some of it. Last episode House gave a young patient mushrooms (psilocybin) for cluster headaches. Pardon? Apparently phycedelic drugs are useful for cluster headaches. The Multidisciplinary Association for Psycedelic Studies (MAPS) is all about encouraging research into these popular recreational drugs for treatment of some medical conditions. In addition to psilocybin for cluster headaches there is marijuana for chronic wasting disease and ecstasy (MDMA) for post tramatic stress disorder (PTSD). Here is a great Nature article on the founder of MAPS and other info on psycedelic therapies. While some of the stuff on the MAPS website is super sketchy (like this account of a mother and son peyote trip as a right of passage) and I was initially very skeptical about this avenue of research however there probably is some really good research that can be done in this area if it wasn't for laws about limiting access to 'fun' recreational drugs. There is no denying their bioactivity and compared to some approved drugs probably have less toxicity. So before I have to deal with another House episode perhaps I should make sure that I'm well prepared for the inevitable induction of a House induced cluster headache.


4 comments:

Bayman said...

House is great. Give the guy a break. His life is a living hell. At least he saves lives. And he's always right. I'd take an abrasive doctor who knows what he's doing over a gentle one who's full of shit any day of the week.

Anonymous Coward said...

Look at who comes to the defense of the doctor with chronic pain! I agree house is my hero. I'd let him in our "back club for men".

Dominic said...

I am on vacation...but I still read interesting things (among other things..the bayblab blog)

I was going through my new copy of Harpers magazine and read an article about this site: www.erowid.com. It has nothing to do with eroticism as some of you might think. Its a database of psychedelic drugs, the effects, the risks and everything in between. A gem...I like the web!
Cheers!

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