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        New Message Board Archives >> Medications, Treatments, Therapies 2003 >> suggestions for charting shroom stats!? 
        
(Message started by: michaelc on Mar 21^st, 2003, 11:03pm)

Title: suggestions for charting shroom stats!?
Post by michaelc on Mar 21^st, 2003, 11:03pm

I'd love to see Pink & Flash put up a page of stats on what effect shroom therapy has had on CH'ers so far.

I know it's not a "magic bullet" but it seems to strike closer to the heart of the BEAST than anything else because it actually can Abort a CYCLE and not just individual headaches.

The "FLASH rating" for effectiveness of meds is a good step forward to getting some objectivity to something that for each of us is a highly private inner experience.

I'd like to see the antecdotal data so-far collected for shroom therapy analyzed for a few factors -

effect on intensity of headaches
effect on duration of headaches
effect on frequency of headaches(daily)
effect on duration of cycle
effect on spacing between cycles
effect on preventing or aborting a cycle
effect of shrooms to abort chronics
other comments or observations from patients

What we could do is anonymize the subjects, give them a number or whatnot and
make a chart of their normal CH cycles(for the factors mentioned above) and average the amount of deviation from the predictable pattern for each and then deduce a group average for each perameter.

If we lay it out like that:
1. people on here will have a better tool for showing their neuro what is being discovered
2. it might attract someone interested in arranging "real" clinical trials, without them having to sort through mounds of postings first.
3. get the most from the data being collected and bring QUICK RELIEF to US in the meantime, while waiting for the 'mainstream' to catch up

I am interested in this because i tried a very small dose .3gm the other day (i am 2 1/2 weeks into the cycle) and it did not stop them, but broke up the pattern and made them shorter - threw the cycle into a wobble.
I know 1gm is the norm here, so i will try that next, but i wanted to see if a VERY tiny amount would have any effect ... and it did!

~MichaelC
ps. I am keeping a 'headache journal' (have one from last cycle too). a daily log off times and kip# of my headaches. i will make up a chart from it in a couple weeks and see what it shows. I would encourage others in this 'experiment' to keep a journal too - it's valuable info.

Title: Re: suggestions for charting shroom stats!?
Post by tommyD on Mar 24^th, 2003, 5:57pm

As one of my many half-assed, usually-unfinished hobbies, I am compiling reports from the message board archives. My idea was to make it easy to read complete reports from individuals without sorting through all the messages. I was doing this for my own purposes, but also with a thought to perhaps posting the compiled stories on the ClusterBusters website.

Your idea of charting results is interesting. Perhaps I will set up a data base to log info from the reports. It could be a lot of woork and I make no promises, knowing my lazy-ass self all too well.

But there are serious drawbacks: some reports are very detailed, some contain little more than "I tried the shrooms and they work great." Also, there is no way to verify anything. A report on the Internet could be from anyone, making up any tale they choose, for whatever reason. Results could be skewed because some folks don't like to report bad news, others don't want to admit in public they are using illegal drugs. But as scientifically invalid as such a chart would be, it could be useful in lobbying for real clinical trials and scientific surveys.

And I think PinkSharkMark and Flash have been keeping track of results to some degree; I think they also have reports sent by private e-mail and which have never appreard on the message board.

I almost forgot! Flash & Pinky, in cooperation with Erowid, have a survey on the web at:
http://www.erowid.org/plants/mushrooms/survey/

And by the way, thanks for your own report, and for keeping a diary. We're looking forward to seeing how things turn out. Good luck.

-tommyD

Title: Re: suggestions for charting shroom stats!?
Post by michaelc on Mar 25^th, 2003, 5:32am

Because CH's are so damn regular ... we have an EXCELLENT chance of clearly demonstrating psilocybin's effects to any interested research groups. My headaches happen on a regular cycle that builds in frequency & intensity over time ... makes a pattern.

Here is a chart i made tonight to illustrate the kind of layout i was talking about ... you can see how the severity and timing was changed immediately when i took the shrooms. :) It sent a sort of 'shock wave" thru the cycle ... set it wobbling into a series of differently spaced and more tolerable CH's (I am not on Any other Meds ... so the chart represents the cycle as it would naturally occur)

http://www.planetaryhealer.net/chart/headache.gif
this chart is reconstructed from memory of the last 2 weeks ... i will be making a better one with the exact times from my "headache journal" when i get some more PFD&N!

Title: Re: suggestions for charting shroom stats!?
Post by tommyD on Mar 25^th, 2003, 6:56am

Whoa! That is one excellent chart. Now I see what you were talking about.

I like the way you show time, duration and intensity of attack while lining up the hours of the day to show the recurring nature of attacks. And the effect of the shroom treatment is dramatically apparent.

Do you have a recipe for making this chart? What software did you use? I wouldn't blame you too much if you kept it a trade secret and marketed your chart services for a fee... ;) Great work.

-tommyD

Title: Re: suggestions for charting shroom stats!?
Post by Flash on Mar 25^th, 2003, 11:56am

Well about 2 years ago myself and someone I know only as "earth from EROWID" put a shitload of time and effort into producing an on-line survey for shrooms. It's a good survey but hardly anyone has bothered to use it...

The link is:

http://www.erowid.org/plants/mushrooms/mushrooms_survey_headaches.shtml

Perhaps someone would like to make an easy link to that site from one of the cluster/mushroom sites???

I have tried emailing you but nobody ever got back to me!!!

Also - what's up with the freakin search facility we are missing a load of posts here.

Flash

Title: Re: suggestions for charting shroom stats!?
Post by michaelc on Mar 26^th, 2003, 4:26am

Hey, Thanks tommyD! ;) I dont have any graphing software - I made the chart 'by hand' in Photoshop. It took about 2hrs because i was still trying various layout ideas. I just posted a blank one that ppl can print out - it's in the general messages section.