Substance use disorders (SUD) represent a significant public health issue with a high need for novel and efficacious treatment options. In light of this high unmet need, recent results reporting beneficial outcomes of psychedelic-assisted therapy in SUD are particularly relevant. However, several questions remain with regard to this treatment approach. The clinical mechanisms of action of...
Psychopharmacology to treat major mental illnesses and trauma-related disorders has been around since the 1950s and peaked around the 1980s, without substantial advancement since that time.Subsequently the psychiatric understanding and treatment of mental illness radically changed over the span of those 30 years (Braslow, 2019).Despite our understanding of trauma continuing to advance, and the...
Medicine is currently experiencing a "psychedelic renaissance", said by many to have commenced in 2006. Since then, clinical trials have consistently demonstrated promising findings for psychedelic-assisted therapies in the treatment of various mental health conditions and addictions. While most of this work has been privately funded, governmental biomedical research funding bodies in countries...
Objective: The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) has positioned itself against medically controlled patient access (at this current time) to 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and psilocybin-assisted therapies in its Therapeutic Use of Psychedelic Substances Clinical Memorandum, May 2020. The main reason given by the RANZCP for its stance is safety...
Due to a production error, the word 'story' was misspelled in the article. A correction has been made to all instances of 'storey' and 'storeys' in the article. They have been corrected to 'story' and 'stories'.Due to a production error, reference citation (1) was incorrectly linked in the Introduction, line 3 and line 5. The citation on line 3 has now been linked to the corresponding...
Accumulating clinical evidence shows that psychedelic therapy, by synergistically combining psychopharmacology and psychological support, offers a promising transdiagnostic treatment strategy for a range of disorders with restricted and/or maladaptive habitual patterns of emotion, cognition and behavior, notably, depression (MDD), treatment resistant depression (TRD) and addiction disorders,...
Psychedelic-assisted therapy research for depression and PTSD has been fast tracked in the United States with the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) granting breakthrough designations for MDMA (post-traumatic stress disorder) and psilocybin (major depressive disorder). The psychotherapeutic treatments accompanying these psychedelics have not been well-studied and remain controversial. This...
There is a serious need for novel therapies that treat individuals with depression, including major depressive disorder (MDD) and treatment-resistant depression (TRD). An emerging body of research has demonstrated that psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin, combined with supportive psychotherapy, exert rapid and sustained antidepressant effects. The use of psychedelics is not new: they have a...
Introduction: Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is a promising approach in psychiatry; evidence is growing and it may not be long before mainstream services are expected to offer it to selected patients. This pilot study examined the attitudes and knowledge of NHS psychiatrists of all levels towards psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and explored potential barriers and facilitators to its...
Abstract This article discusses current literature on the use of 3,4‐methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)‐assisted psychotherapy in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). MDMA, the intended active ingredient in illicit Ecstasy or Molly products, is a psychedelic that causes an elevated mood, feeling of bonding, and increased energy. In MDMA‐assisted psychotherapy, patients are...