Brain injury survivors use psychedelics to manage symptoms

Baeleigh VanderZwaag, the UVic PhD student who led the study, said there is limited research from human participants when it comes to psychedelics and brain injury, with most research coming from animal models. This is the first time a study has examined traumatic brain injury survivors' self-reported use of psychedelics to treat symptoms.

"I wasn't expecting so many people to be using psychedelics at this point for brain injury-it's really new information," says VanderZwaag. "It was surprising to find that some people globally are experimenting with this, acquiring psychedelics by themselves to see how it works for them."

Researchers found that respondents with TBIs most often used psilocybin every two to five months or every six months to treat their symptoms, using a mix of microdoses and larger doses. Other respondents reported self-medicating with LSD/acid and ketamine.

Not only are people with TBIs experimenting with psychedelics to manage mood, cognitive and somatic symptoms-they are finding relief. When asked to rate how effective their psychedelic use was on their TBI-related symptoms, 90 per cent of the sample self-reported some level of symptom improvement.

Source:

University of Victoria

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