Youth today are burdened by significant mental health challenges. In 2022, 25% of adolescents aged 12 to 17 years experienced a mental illness, with 20% experiencing a depressive episode, 12.5% reporting serious thoughts of suicide, and 17% meeting criteria for a substance use disorder.1 Close to 5% of adolescents experience posttraumatic stress disorder.2 Impairing psychiatric symptoms remain...
Anorexia Nervosa is a severe psychiatric disorder characterized by a distorted body image and an intense fear of weight gain, leading to self-imposed caloric restriction and excessive weight loss. Current treatments, including nutritional rehabilitation, psychotherapy, and pharmacological interventions, exhibit low long-term recovery rates. Psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) offers a promising...
The use of ketamine and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) for treatment of depression has grown dramatically, though much of these data are short term. The clinical profile of maintenance treatment remains poorly characterized. We assessed maintenance KAP for efficacy, tolerability, and reasons for dropout. This observational study retrospectively analyzed electronic health records from an...
Background: Bipolar II disorder (BD-II) is often associated with chronic and treatment resistant major depressive episodes. Psilocybin has shown promise for its rapid-acting antidepressant effects, though its impact on bipolar depression remains unexplored. In the present subgroup analysis of an already published trial on treatment-resistant depression (TRD), we aimed to preliminarily evaluate...
Belief change is crucial to therapeutic benefit in psychedelic-assisted therapy as well as in more traditional forms of therapy. However, the use of psychedelics comes with a few unique challenges that require extra caution. First, drastic belief changes may occur faster than in regular therapy. Facing radical and transformative insights all at once rather than through a gradual process of...
This Viewpoint discusses the critical yet overlooked role of the psychotherapy component in assessing the validity of the trials of midomafetamine/3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)–assisted psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder.
The first sentence in the Limitations section of the abstract for “Psychedelic Therapy: A Primer for Primary Care Clinicians - N,N-Dimethyltryptamine and Ayahuasca” stated:“There has only been a single published double-blind randomized controlled trial on ayahuasca and 2 on DMT.” The end of this sentence is incorrect. There are no published, double-blind randomized controlled trials on DMT as...
3,4-Methylenedioxymetamphetamine(MDMA)-assisted psychotherapy (MDMA-AP) is a proposed treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that may be approved for adults soon. PTSD is also common among trauma-exposed adolescents, and current treatments leave much room for improvement. We present a rationale for considering MDMA-AP for treating PTSD among adolescents. Evidence suggests that as an...
Modern clinical trials suggest early evidence for the safety and efficacy of psychedelic assisted psychotherapy (PAP) in domains including addictions, dysphoria related to life-threatening illnesses and depression. Research suggests that the mystical experience (ME) under psychedelics appears to play a key role in positive outcomes. With a growing evidence base, it is possible that PAP may be...
As clinical trials for psychedelics move into phase III in the USA, Europe must address its lag in integrating professional education around psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) and supporting psychedelic drug research. This paper evaluates the necessary frameworks for implementing PAT in Germany, emphasizing the nation's potential leadership role within the European Union. With Australia having...