Next: Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy?

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How ecsta­sy and psilo­cy­bin are shak­ing up psy­chi­a­try (Nature):

… The Impe­r­i­al study was one of a spate of clin­i­cal tri­als launched over the past few years using illic­it psy­che­del­ic drugs such as psilo­cy­bin, lyser­gic acid diethy­lamide (LSD) and MDMA (3,4‑methylenedioxymethamphetamine, also known as mol­ly or ecsta­sy) to treat men­tal-health dis­or­ders, gen­er­al­ly with the close guid­ance of a psy­chi­a­trist or psy­chother­a­pist. The idea has been around for decades — or cen­turies in some cul­tures — but the momen­tum has picked up dras­ti­cal­ly over the past few years as investors and sci­en­tists have begun to cham­pi­on the approach again.

Psy­che­del­ic-assist­ed psy­chother­a­py could pro­vide need­ed options for debil­i­tat­ing men­tal-health dis­or­ders includ­ing PTSD, major depres­sive dis­or­der, alco­hol-use dis­or­der, anorex­ia ner­vosa and more that kill thou­sands every year in the Unit­ed States, and cost bil­lions world­wide in lost productivity.

But the strate­gies rep­re­sent a new fron­tier for reg­u­la­tors. “This is unex­plored ground as far as a for­mal­ly eval­u­at­ed inter­ven­tion for a psy­chi­atric dis­or­der,” says Wal­ter Dunn, a psy­chi­a­trist at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, Los Ange­les, who some­times advis­es the US Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion (FDA) on psy­chi­atric drugs. Most drugs that treat depres­sion and anx­i­ety can be picked up at a neigh­bour­hood phar­ma­cy. These new approach­es, by con­trast, use a pow­er­ful sub­stance in a ther­a­peu­tic set­ting under the close watch of a trained psy­chother­a­pist, and reg­u­la­tors and treat­ment providers will need to grap­ple with how to imple­ment that safely.

Recent study:

Effects of Psilo­cy­bin-Assist­ed Ther­a­py on Major Depres­sive Dis­or­der (JAMA Psy­chi­a­try). Key Points from the study:

  • Ques­tion: Is psilo­cy­bin-assist­ed ther­a­py effi­ca­cious among patients with major depres­sive disorder?
  • Find­ings: In this ran­dom­ized clin­i­cal tri­al of 24 par­tic­i­pants with major depres­sive dis­or­der, par­tic­i­pants who received imme­di­ate psilo­cy­bin-assist­ed ther­a­py com­pared with delayed treat­ment showed improve­ment in blind­ed clin­i­cian rater–assessed depres­sion sever­i­ty and in self-report­ed sec­ondary out­comes through the 1‑month follow-up.
  • Mean­ing: This ran­dom­ized clin­i­cal tri­al found that psilo­cy­bin-assist­ed ther­a­py was effi­ca­cious in pro­duc­ing large, rapid, and sus­tained anti­de­pres­sant effects in patients with major depres­sive disorder.

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