> It's fascinating that a monthly visit to your local shaman may still be more safe and effective for depression, anxiety, and cognitive decline than anything western medicine has been able to produce.

I get the romanticized enthusiasm but let’s not crap on scientific process that easily. Sure there has been political pressures that stagnated psychedelic research, but for a while western medicine has been trying to work this out in a replicable and safely administrable manner. Shamans don’t operate under those limitations, hence the apparent “superiority”, with all associated, undocumented risks.

To get to the point of this paper, there are “western” substances that help with BDNF and cognitive decline too, eg. lithium, which is not as psychoactive and has a perfectly well documented risk profile (not saying risk free).