IntroductionPosttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric condition which can be developed following traumatic experience. Treatment guidelines have long considered psychotherapy as a first line treatment. Despite that, PTSD remains an illness with high rates of comorbidity. Therefore, exploring novel therapies is of utmost importance.ObjectivesClarifying methylenedioxymethamphetamine...
Introduction After a long moratorium since the Controlled Substances Act was passed in 1970, there has been a resurgence of research on the potential therapeutic benefits of psychedelic (PE) compounds. It has been widely believed that the PE effect is a result of the interaction between the drug and the mindset of the patient (the “set”) with the external physical and social conditions (the...
Psychedelic-assisted Psychotherapy (PAP) combines the use of psychedelic compounds, such as psilocybin, with psychotherapy. PAP has shown some promise as a novel treatment for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), and empirical research suggests that its efficacy turns on the altered states induced by psychedelic compounds. In this paper we draw on the literature of phenomenology to explain the...
Psychedelic therapy is a research-based attempt to combine the use of psychedelic substances with psychotherapy in order to support a client towards therapeutic goals. Literature from the mid-twentieth century as well as more recent scholarship provides strong evidence of psychedelic therapy's ability to safely, rapidly, and effectively treat conditions including depressive disorders and...
Sandra J Drozdz,1 Akash Goel,1â 3 Matthew W McGarr,4 Joel Katz,3,5â 7 Paul Ritvo,5,7 Gabriella F Mattina,1 Venkat Bhat,8â 10 Calvin Diep,3 Karim S Ladha1,3,10 1Department of Anesthesia, St. Michaelâs Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada; 2Department of Anesthesiology, Pain and Perioperative Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; 3Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine,...
International drug policy is rapidly evolving in tandem with promising evidence for psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAP) in treating a range of mental health conditions. Canada is among the countries increasingly expanding access to psychedelic substances for therapeutic purposes. The 8-year ban on medical exemptions through the Canadian Special Access Programme was recently reversed in...
This project is a systematic review that highlights how beneficial psychedelic psychotherapy can be to those suffering with mental illness. The three mental illnesses chosen to be analyzed in the literature were depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and anxiety. The drugs used in the specific articles included Psilocybin, Ayahuasca(DMT), and MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine;...
To the Editor: Our group recently published in JCP the first meta-analysis of patient-level data on the effects of psychedelics on suicidality. 1 While not described in our article, it is noteworthy that 2 suicidality-related events that had been deemed not attributable to the administration of a psychedelic (by the authors of the primary outcome studies) occurred within the studies included in...
Depression and anxiety outcome measures, safety/tolerability, patient satisfaction, and ease of implementation of group-based ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (G-KAP) delivered to patients in intensive residential eating disorder (ED) treatment were assessed. This study reports on five participants with a diagnosis of an ED and comorbid mood and anxiety disorders who received weekly...
Letheby’s naturalistic theory of psychedelic therapy argues that the therapeutic power of psychedelics lies in their ability to allow individuals “to discover the contingency, mutability and simulatory nature of their own sense of identity and habitual modes of attention.” The general shape of this project is persuasive; it is hard to see how the claim that successful therapy must involve...