The concept of integration has garnered increased attention in the past few years, despite a long history of only brief mention. Integration services are offered by therapists, coaches, and other practitioners, or may be self-guided. There are many definitions of psychedelic integration, and the term encompasses a range of practices and techniques. This seems to have led to confusion about what...
Background: Over the last two decades, a number of studies have highlighted the potential of psychedelic therapy. However, questions remain to what extend these results translate to naturalistic samples, and how contextual factors and the acute psychedelic experience relate to improvements in affective symptoms following psychedelic experiences outside labs/clinics. The present study sought to...
Iboga and its primary alkaloids, ibogaine and noribogaine, have been of interest to researchers and practitioners, mainly due to their putative efficacy in treating substance use disorders (SUDs). For many SUDs, still no effective pharmacotherapies exist. Distinct psychoactive and somatic effects of the iboga alkaloids set them apart from classic hallucinogens like LSD, mescaline, and...
The acute subjective effects of psychedelics are responsive to users’ expectations and surroundings (i.e., “set and setting”). Accordingly, a great deal of thought has gone into designing the psychosocial context of psychedelic administration in clinical settings. But what theoretical paradigms inform these considerations about set and setting? Here, we describe several historical, sociological...
The research and use of psychedelic medicines to treat common mental health disorders has increased substantially in the past 2 decades. At the same time, knowledge is relatively uncommon among midwives regarding (1) the relative benefits of psychedelic-assisted therapy, (2) best practices associated with the delivery of psychedelic-assisted therapy, and (3) responsible integration of this...
BACKGROUND: There is currently renewed interest in the use of psychedelic therapy in the treatment of psychiatric disorders, including depression. The proposed systematic review will aim to identify, evaluate and summarise the psychological processes of change underlying psychedelic therapy for depression in the current literature and consider the implications these processes may have on the...
From the 1960s to the present day, American research into the therapeutic effects of psychedelic drugs has focused on their ability to facilitate “mystical” experiences in test subjects. “Mysticomimetic” research has close ties to perennialist notions of religion that gained popularity over the course of the 20th century. Figures such as William James and Aldous Huxley promoted perennialist...
Eating disorders (EDs) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are highly comorbid, yet there are no proven integrative treatment modalities for ED-PTSD. In clinical trials, MDMA-assisted therapy (MDMA-AT) has shown marked success in the treatment of PTSD and may be promising for ED-PTSD. Ninety individuals with severe PTSD received treatment in a double-blind, placebo-controlled pivotal trial...
I highly recommend Philosophy of Psychedelics by Chris Letheby (2021) to both the public and academics who want to dig deeper into the modern therapeutic science of psychedelics. In this piece, I will draw attention to key topics covered in the book that I judge as particularly compelling and likely to influence psychedelic therapy and our understanding of it going forward. Clearly, the...
Psilocybin therapy shows antidepressant potential, but its therapeutic actions are not well understood. We assessed the subacute impact of psilocybin on brain function in two clinical trials of depression. The first was an open-label trial of orally administered psilocybin (10 mg and 25 mg, 7 d apart) in patients with treatment-resistant depression. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)...