Clinical research worldwide is again investigating psychedelic substances as treatments for addiction, depression, anxiety, and PTSD. This renewed interest follows a period of research that ran from the 1950s until it was terminated, and the abstract indicates that current studies are exploring these substances' therapeutic potential for those conditions.
Psychedelics lost medical acceptance about 50 years ago, but recent research indicates growing optimism among scientists for their therapeutic revival. More than six decades ago, Albert Hofmann at Sandoz Pharmaceutical Laboratories in Switzerland first synthesized lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).
Cluster headaches, which affect about 0.1% of the population, are a focus for extending research on psychedelic drugs as adjuncts to psychotherapy, according to Tupper and colleagues. The renewed clinical interest in these substances includes their potential application in headache medicine, particularly for treating cluster headache episodes.
Alberta is set to become the first province to regulate psychedelic-assisted therapy. As with cannabis, the push for medical access to psychedelics is moving faster than the research needed to guide their use. Health Canada recently changed its Special Access Program to let physicians request such therapies.
Interest in using psilocybin (the active compound in 'magic mushrooms') for therapy is increasing, while unregulated dispensaries selling psychedelics proliferate in Canada and the United States. Over the past ten years, research into the clinical application of psychedelics for conditions such as depression and addiction has undergone a revival.