Studies test medical use of psychedelics

New research on the use of psychedelic drugs as treatment for mental disorders appears to be throwing open doors of perception long closed in the medical community, says a new analysis in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

For several decades, the North American medical establishment has classified psychedelic drugs—including lysergic acid diethy- lamide, or LSD, psilocybin and methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA — as drugs of abuse with little to no medical purpose or means of safe use.

That, four researchers argue, is changing.

In Switzerland, Canada, Brazil, Peru, Mexico and the United States, scientists with no evident countercultural tendencies are conducting research that is finding psychedelic drugs a valuable adjunct to psy- chotherapy in treating addiction, post-traumatic stress and the depression or anxiety that often comes with terminal illness.

While most are smallscale pilot studies, larger trials are planned—and “more people are becoming interested and even jumping into the field to start trials themselves,” said author Matthew W. Johnson, a professor at Johns Hopkins University.

Clinical investigators are demonstrating that such research “can conform to the rigorous scientific, ethical and safety standards expected of contemporary medical research,” the authors write in the new analysis, titled Psychedelic medicine: a re-emerging therapeutic paradigm. And the body of research they are generating is demonstrating that such drugs as MDMA, LSD and psilocybin can be effective in treating well-chosen patients.