Towards social curative psychedelic treatment

Abstract

Recent advances in psychedelic-assisted therapies highlight their efficacy in treating various mental health conditions. Nevertheless, the fact that delivery is generally individualised may limit therapeutic outcomes by failing to capitalise on opportunities to build and harness a sense of shared social identity among participants in ways hypothesised by ‘social cure’ research. In line with this approach, evidence suggests that group-based interventions generally help to foster empathy, connectedness, and social functioning. Accordingly, integrating “social cure” principles informed by social identity theorising into treatment has the potential to enhance therapeutic efficacy by promoting interconnectedness within a supportive group setting. Building on these insights, this article makes the case for integrating these two approaches to mental health treatment, which have hitherto been advanced in parallel within separate spheres of psychiatry. This speaks to the problem that while research into group-based therapies is burgeoning, it still lacks comprehensive theoretical underpinning. This collaboration will also be crucial for the development of guidelines to ensure responsible and effective implementation of socially informed psychedelic therapies, in a way that ushers in a more comprehensive and socially embedded approach to mental health care.