Mar 05, 2015 12:43 PM EST By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

New research suggests that the use of psychedelics, such as LSD and magic mushrooms, does not increase a person's risk of developing mental health problems.

Researchers found no link between psychedelic drug use and psychological distress, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts. Their findings suggest that on a number of measures, the use of psychedelic drugs is correlated with fewer mental health problems.

"Over 30 million US adults have tried psychedelics and there just is not much evidence of health problems," researcher Pal Orjan Johansen said in a statement.

For the study, researchers collected and analyzed data from the U.S. National Health Survey which involved more than 135,000 randomly chosen people, including 19,000 people who had used psychedelics. 

Johansen and researcher Teri Krebs previous population study, which used data from 2001-2004, also failed to find evidence for a link between psychedelic use and mental health problems.

"Drug experts consistently rank LSD and psilocybin mushrooms as much less harmful to the individual user and to society compared to alcohol and other controlled substances," adds Krebs. In contrast to alcohol, psychedelics are not addictive.

Johansen said that given the design of the study, they cannot exclude the possibility that use of psychedelics might have a negative effect on mental health for some individuals or groups, perhaps counterbalanced at a population level by a positive effect on mental health in others.

The findings are detailed in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

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