PSYCHEDELIC MEDICINE
A New Paradigm for Healing
We are facing an unprecedented mental health crisis
Communities around the globe continue to suffer from growing numbers of “deaths of despair,” including suicide, drug overdose, and rampant substance abuse.
According to the World Health Organization, 300 million people around the world have depression, including 16.2 million adults in the United States. Nearly 50% of all people diagnosed with depression are also diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.
Traditional psychiatric treatments (antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications) may have significant negative side effects – including emotional numbness, migraines, sexual dysfunction, weight gain, drowsiness, substance abuse disorders, insomnia, and suicidal ideation – and have lacked innovation for decades. Psychedelic therapies offer a new treatment paradigm, one of healing rather than masking. Their time is now!
A Promising Tool
Psychedelic medicines, originally derived from plants, have been used for centuries by indigenous cultures in spiritual ceremonies to promote healing and well-being.
When used in a safe environment with proper clinical and medical support, they can be powerful tools to help treat many mood, somatic, and trauma-based disorders such as depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, substance abuse disorders, eating disorders, complex grief states, fear around death/dying, fibromyalgia, complex regional pain syndrome, autoimmune disorders, postpartum depression, peri/menopause complications, assistance with tapering off psychotropics, complex pain, and other ailments of the soul.
Most psychedelics, if safely delivered with medical and therapeutic supervision, in a healing setting, with client-set intentions and individualized dosage, can offer an ego-dissolving transcendent experience. This allows our members to compassionately examine their greatest traumas, fears, ruminating thoughts, and destructive behaviors, and ultimately overcome them.
While many psychedelic medicines, like MDMA and psilocybin, are in clinical trials for future medical use/legalization, ketamine is currently the only option for psychedelic therapy legally prescribable for the treatment of mood disorders in the US.
Psychedelics are the Future
We are facing an emotional distress epidemic and psychedelics show promise in potentially
revolutionizing the way mental healthcare is delivered
A New Class of Medicines?
Innovation in psychiatry has lagged behind other healing sciences and arts. Yet a whole class of psychotropic medications are gaining momentum for clinical application—psychedelics.
Classic and non-classic psychedelics were being used for mental health applications prior to being demonized as Schedule I drugs by the DEA—substances or chemicals said to have no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Yet, psychedelics have a demonstrably low potential for abuse, as evidenced by the chart below.
Moreover, psychedelics have a track record of safety in indigenous communities, where they have been used since antiquity. New research frontiers have opened in search of medicines that can provide rapid, safe, and effective relief from emotional anguish, and psychedelics are at the forefront. You can find a list of current clinical trials in psychedelics here.
In parallel, a wave of decriminalization has already begun, with states such as Oregon and Colorado embracing psychedelics for use in healing.
Applications of Psychedelics
Psychedelics have the potential to treat dysfunction from acute and chronic mental illness and help individuals deepen their mental health and sense of wellness. They have the potential for an interventional approach to rapidly relieve distress from various causes and help maintain mental resilience and flexibility.
Anxiety/Depression/OCD
Psilocybin (the active compound in “magic” mushrooms) has shown great promise in treating depression, anxiety, and OCD.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy or molly, is perhaps the closest psychedelic compound to legalization for therapy, with Phase III clinical trials showing marked efficacy in treating PTSD when combined with therapy. MDMA is anticipated to be approved for medical use by the FDA by the Fall of 2024.
Addiction
Psilocybin and Ibogaine have been used extensively in countries where their use is legal to treat alcoholism and opiate addiction, respectively.