Psychedelic treatment with psilocybin is receiving increased attention following clinical trials showing it may help treat end-of-life anxiety, depression, and several other conditions. Despite this, physicians may be reluctant to prescribe psilocybin and carry out psilocybin treatment because of the stigma surrounding psychedelics and the potential for medi...
Psychedelics (e.g., 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine [MDMA], lysergic acid diethylamide [LSD], psilocybin) are molecules that have the potential to produce rapid therapeutic effects when paired with psychotherapy. Randomized clinical trials of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAT) have shown promising results for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), de...
With its catchy title, historian Benjamin Breen's Tripping on Utopia brings together controversial findings about the human mind, social engineering, and professional responsibility. He delineates the time frame and focus of an inquiry into psychoactive drug research by stating that “Timothy Leary and the Baby Boomers did not usher in the first psychedelic e...
Psychedelics are a class of hallucinogenic drugs. They have been explored particularly for treatment-resistant psychiatric illnesses. In recent years, advances in psychopharmacology have benefited thousands of patients with some type of mental disorder. Preliminary evidence has shown that psilocybin has shown promise in the treatment of psychiatric disorders...
The ethical value-and to some scholars, necessity-of providing trial patients with post-trial access (PTA) to an investigational drug has been subject to significant attention in the field of research ethics. Although no consensus has emerged, it seems clear that, in some trial contexts, various factors make PTA particularly appropriate. We outline the atypi...
Psychedelic-assisted treatment (PAT) for mental health is in renaissance. Psilocybin and MDMA stand near FDA approval, and US cities and states are decriminalizing or regulating the non-clinical use of psilocybin. However, neither FDA indications nor a regulated use model sufficiently address the complex needs and opportunities for an improved treatment of a...
Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Clinical & ResearchFull AccessAustralia Legalizes Psychedelics for Use in Depression, PTSD TherapyNick ZagorskiNick ZagorskiSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:15 Aug 2023https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2023.09.9.20AbstractThe country is the first to make psilocybin and MDMA available ...
Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Annual MeetingFull AccessPsychedelic Therapy Requires Enhanced Consent DiscussionsNick ZagorskiNick ZagorskiPublished Online:28 Jun 2023https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2023.07.7.46AbstractThe presenters at an Annual Meeting session cautioned that patients pursuing psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy will...
This paper addresses the possible effects of psychedelic drugs, notably psilocybin, on moral bio-enhancement (MBE). It will be argued that non-psychedelic substances, such as oxytocin, serotonin/serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or vasopressin, have indirect effects on M(B)E, whereas psilocybin has direct effects. Additionally, morality and happiness have been ...
Psychedelics such as psilocybin reliably produce significantly altered states of consciousness with a variety of subjectively experienced effects. These include certain changes to perception, cognition, and affect, 1 which we refer to here as the acute subjective effects of psychedelics. In recent years, psychedelics such as psilocybin have also shown consid...
Psychedelic treatments, particularly 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)-assisted and psilocybin-assisted therapies, have recently seen renewed interest in their clinical potential to treat various mental health conditions. Clinical trials for both MDMA-assisted and psilocybin-assisted therapies have shown to be highly efficacious for post-traumatic str...
Abstract Recent research offers good reason to think that various psychedelic drugs-including psilocybin, ayahuasca, ketamine, MDMA, and LSD-may have significant therapeutic potential in the treatment of various mental health conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, existential distress, and addiction. Although the use of psychoactiv...
While the literature on psychedelic medicine emphasizes the importance of set and setting alongside the quality of subjective drug effects for therapeutic efficacy, few scholars have explored the therapeutic frameworks that are used alongside psychedelics in the lab or in the clinic. Based on a narrative analysis of the treatment manual and post-session expe...
Recent evidence shows significant potential for therapies involving psychedelic substances such as psilocybin and MDMA to improve clinical outcomes for patients experiencing various mental disorders. However, research to date focuses almost exclusively on adults. I argue that adolescents should be included in research into psychedelic therapies. First, I dem...
As both 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)- and psilocybin-assisted psychedelic psychotherapy near U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval and gain acceptance as efficacious clinical approaches, concerns have been raised about the likelihood of sexual violation of a client and other relational boundary transgressions. In the current study, 23 ...
Altered waking states of consciousness and its underlying functional organization have gained increasing interest in recent years, i.e. in identifying the neural basis of consciousness. To overcome fundamental shortcomings of current methods to objectively assess the level of consciousness, the investigators propose here to apply a novel and empirically vali...
Despite the fact that psychedelics were proscribed from medical research half a century ago, recent, early-phase trials on psychedelics have suggested that they bring novel benefits to patients in the treatment of several mental and substance use disorders. When beneficial, the psychedelic experience is characterized by features unlike those of other psychia...
Although transhumanism offers hope for the transcendence of human biological limitations, it generates many intrinsic and consequential ethical concerns. The latter include issues such as the exacerbation of social inequalities and the exponentially increasing technological capacity to cause harm. To mitigate these risks, many thinkers have initiated investi...
