According to a new study published by the American Medical Association, marijuana and psychedelics are “among a limited set of drugs that show promise” for treating eating disorders. In fact, participants rated marijuana and psychedelics as “the most effective” in addressing eating disorder symptoms.
The positive self-reported ratings for cannabis and psychedelics in alleviating symptoms was striking. [eating disorder] Authors wrote that they found “symptoms” which were more than the commonly prescribed psychotropics.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open, evaluated a wide range of drugs and their subjective effects on eating disorders, including “caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, prescription psychotropics, psychedelics, ketamine, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (or ecstasy) [MDMA]”Stimulants, opioids and other drugs.”
The researchers analyzed survey data from 6612 respondents who responded to questions regarding their use of drugs and alcohol in the past year and how they affected symptoms such as eating disorders (ED) or mental illness.
The report states that “cannabis and psychedelics are the best for treating ED symptoms,” noting prescription antidepressants were “rated highly in terms of overall mental health, but not ED symptoms.”
Cannabis, LSD, and psilocybin “rated high” as well in terms overall mental improvement.
Participants rated alcohol, nicotine, and tobacco as the “most harmful drugs.”
A small number of substances improved the eating disorder symptoms. The majority of substances made symptoms worse.
Cannabis and psychedelics ranked among the few drugs that were rated as effective in relieving symptoms of [eating disorder] symptoms.”
According to the newspaper, “When respondents were asked which drug they would use for treating ED symptoms by themselves, cannabis was their top choice.” When normalized by number of users, fluoxetine was the most popular drug.
Nine authors are behind this new study, including representatives from the University of Sydney, New South Wales Health in Australia and Kings College London, U.K.
Authors wrote: “This survey of non-prescription and prescription drug users suggests that respondents perceive cannabis and psychedelics to be effective at alleviating their ED symptom,” “which supports additional research in this field.”
According to the article, “Overall, psilocybin was the top-rated drug for ED symptoms, followed by cannabis and lysergic diethylamide” (LSD).
This team noted, too, that, “interestingly MDMA and Ketamine didn’t achieve the positive rating evident with LSD or psilocybin. It suggests that classic psychedelics might possess unique properties.”
According to the new report, clinical trials have already begun on whether psilocybin can be an effective treatment of anorexia.
According to the authors, cannabis could be used as a way of reducing symptoms associated with eating disorders such as anorexia by increasing “the hedonic values” of foods.
Separate federally funded research published last year explored exactly what happens in the brain after using marijuana that causes the “munchies”—findings authors of that study said could help lead to the development of targeted therapeutics for people with conditions such as anorexia and obesity.
Kristie Gianpulos is the photographer of this image element.