The study, published in the
PLOS One Journal, found "there were no significant associations between lifetime use of any psychedelics or use of LSD in the past year and increased rate of mental health issues,"
The Local reports.
Researchers Pal-Orjan Johansen and Teri Krebs have found, on the other hand, that in many cases, psychedelic drug use was actually linked with a "lower rate of mental health problems."
For the study, Johansen and Krebs analyzed more than 130,000 Americans who took drugs between 2001 and 2004, 22,000 of those studied had taken psychedelic drugs at least once.
"Despite popular perceptions, expert harm assessments have not demonstrated that classical serotonergic psychedelic substances such as LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline are demonstrated to cause chronic mental health problems," Johansen told The Local.
"Everything has some risk: psychedelics can elicit temporary feelings of anxiety and confusion, but accidents leading to serious injury are extremely rare," Krebs added.
"Over the past 50 years tens of millions of people have used psychedelics and there just is not much evidence of long-term problems."
Johansen said that earlier studies showing a link between psychedelic drugs and mental health problems were usually based on a smaller number of people that were already suffering from mental illnesses.
Last year, Johansen and Krebs wrote that one dose of LSD was a
"highly effective treatment" for alcoholism,
The Daily Mail reports.
