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What Is Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy?
Psychedelic-assisted therapy is the newly rediscovered technique of using psychedelic substances such as psilocybin and LSD to help patients achieve mental health goals. Patients are given low to moderate doses […]
Psychedelic-assisted therapy is the newly rediscovered technique of using psychedelic substances such as psilocybin and LSD to help patients achieve mental health goals. Patients are given low to moderate doses of a psychedelic substance in a controlled setting under the supervision of a medical or mental health professional and then observed as the experience unfolds. Later, the patient and therapist meet to discuss the experience in a process called “integration,” during which they talk about what the experience was like and what it meant. A second session following the same protocol is usually scheduled within one to two weeks.
Although deceptively simple in design, psychedelic therapy has proven to have remarkable benefits for a wide array of mental health conditions. Below is a short summary of just a few recent studies and their results:
Post-traumatic stress disorder
A recent Phase 3 clinical trial conducted by the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies, or MAPS, treated 90 patients with severe, chronic PTSD with MDMA (ecstasy). After three sessions, 67% of patients no longer met the criteria for PTSD, and 88% had achieved significant reduction of PTSD symptoms. This held true even for those subjects who had comorbidities such as depression and substance abuse.
Distress associated with terminal illness
Multiple studies have demonstrated a significant reduction in symptoms of depression and anxiety in terminally ill patients treated with psilocybin. Patients in these studies have also reported improvements in quality of life, optimism, death acceptance and spiritual connection following the treatment experience. Additionally, a recent study at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine using a single dose of high-dose psilocybin in patients with terminal cancer showed significant reductions in depression and anxiety in approximately 80% of subjects both immediately after the experience and at a six-month follow-up.
Depression
A small phase 2 clinical trial conducted in London and reported in the New England Journal of Medicine compared the efficacy of two doses of psilocybin to daily dosing of the antidepressant escitalopram (Lexapro) for the treatment of long-standing major depressive disorder. Of the 59 patients in the study, those who received psilocybin had at least as great or a greater decrease in self-reported depressive symptoms than those in the antidepressant group. This study builds on prior research that has shown psilocybin therapy to nearly eliminate depressive symptoms in a majority of patients with chronic major depressive disorder.
The results of these and other studies are so promising that the Food and Drug Administration recently designated psilocybin as a breakthrough therapy and approved a large-scale clinical trial for its use in major depression. MAPS has also requested breakthrough status for MDMA in the treatment of PTSD.
Sources
“LSD”. Drugs.com. https://www.drugs.com/illicit/lsd.html
“What Is Psychedelic Therapy?” VeryWell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/psychedelic-therapy-how-does-it-work-5079161
“Treating PTSD with MDMA Assisted Therapy”. Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. https://maps.org/2021/05/03/maps-phase-3-trial-of-mdma-assisted-therapy-for-ptsd-achieves-successful-results-for-patients-with-severe-chronic-ptsd/
“Policy Statement and Review: Psilocybin Therapy for Emotional Suffering Caused by Terminal Illness”. End of Life Washington. https://endoflifewa.org/news/policy-statement-and-review-psilocybin-therapy-for-emotional-suffering-caused-by-terminal-illness/
“Psilocybin produces substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer: A randomized double-blind trial”. Journal of Psychopharmacology. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5367557/
“Trial of Psilocybin versus Escitalopram for Depression”. The New England Journal of Medicine. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2032994
“Psychedelic Treatment with Psilocybin Relieves Major Depression, Study Shows”. Johns Hopkins Medicine. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/newsroom/news-releases/2020/11/psychedelic-treatment-with-psilocybin-relieves-major-depression-study-shows
“Breakthrough Therapy”. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. https://www.fda.gov/patients/fast-track-breakthrough-therapy-accelerated-approval-priority-review/breakthrough-therapy
