Despite the contemporary stigma of psychedelics, it has been used for centuries in religious practices and spiritual healing. The purported benefits of microdosing psychedelics can improve productivity and creativity, but when consumed in a clinical setting they can be used to treat a myriad of mental illnesses. Authors Kenneth W. Tupper Ph.D., Evan Wood MD Ph.D., Richard Yensen Ph.D., Matthew W. Johnson Ph.D. in the article “Psychedelics medicine: a re-emerging therapeutic paradigm,” published in 2015 gives multiple mental disorders and provides the psychedelic that is best suited to treat that disorder with research evidence. In the article “The Therapeutic Potential of Psychedelic Drugs: Past, Present, and Future,” published in 2017, author Robin L Carhart-Harris (RLC-H) and Guy M Goodwin (MGM) provides information on psychedelics on mental illness in general, but focuses on the effect of psilocybin as a treatment for depression. In the article, “Classic psychedelic use is associated with reduced psychological distress and suicidality in the United States adult population,” published in 2015, authors Peter S Hendricks, Christopher B Thorne, C Brendan Clark, David W Coombs, and Matthew W Johnson focuses on how psychedelic can be used to treat mental illnesses that can lead to suicide. These three articles are in agreement that the field of medicine can benefit from adopting psychedelic treatment for mental illnesses. Through many clinical testings, psychedelics proved that they have the potential to be a valuable component in psychotherapy and also in treating patients with mental illness who do not respond well with traditional medicine or treatment plans.

The psychedelics that were mentioned in all three articles include lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), mescaline and methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). Tupper et al. go further by separating them into two classes: classic psychedelics and entactogens. The effect of classic psychedelics such as LSD, DMT, psilocybin, and mescaline are achieved by their “activity as agonists at the (5-HT2A) receptors.” Agonist drugs function by binding themselves to a serotonin (5-HT2A) brain receptor to cause certain actions. Entactogens such as MDMA, act “primarily as a serotonin-releasing agent” that has overlapping effects from classic psychedelics (1054).

Although these psychedelics attach themselves to the same brain receptors, they have distinct effects on the brain and therefore make certain drugs better suited for certain mental illnesses and psychotherapy. For instance, classic psychedelics such as LSD, DMT, and psilocybin have the potential to aid in preventing suicide. The article “Classic psychedelic use is associated with reduced psychological distress and suicidality in the United States adult population” studied the effect of lifetime use of psychedelics on a person’s overall psychological distress level and suicidal related thoughts. Amongst the 191,832 adults in the US that reported lifetime use of classic psychedelics, there was an overall decrease in psychological distress, suicidal attempt, thinking, and planning (Hendricks et al. 284). Psilocybin also has the potential of treating addiction. For instance, a small group of 15 people who smokes at least 10 cigarettes a day were given psilocybin assisted treatment and found that “12 of the 15 participants were abstinent” after six months (Tupper et al. 1056). In another study done by a New Mexico team that focused on alcohol dependence administered psilocybin assisted therapy to 10 participants with alcohol dependence (and no concurrent mental illness or other substance use disorder). The results show that “heavy drinking days were reduced by more than half” (Tupper et al. 1056). MDMA has therapeutic potential in treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The first controlled pilot study that was done in 2011 that tested the MDMA-assisted psychotherapy on a group of 20 participants who suffer from PTSD found that there was a “significant and sustained reduction in PTSD symptoms” with only 2 cases of relapse after three and a half years (Tupper et al. 1057). In the study done by Gasser et at. In 2014, results showed that LSD can be used to treat anxiety. The 12 subjects that had anxiety related to life-threatening disease had a significant “decrease in state and trait anxiety” (RLC-H and GMG 2109). Interestingly, Tupper et al. mentioned a similar study done in Switzerland that also tested LSD’s ability in treating anxiety and found a significant reduction in state anxiety but no significant reduction in trait anxiety (1056).

There are no significant after-effects that patients suffered from receiving psychedelic-assisted therapy if administered properly. RLC-H and GMG specify that the effectiveness of psychedelics is limited when not administered with “psychological support and/or a supportive environment,” but cases, where patients’ conditions worsen from psychedelics treatments, are very rare (2110). Researchers have to be cautious not to accept participants who have pre-existing mental disorders. Hendricks et at. And Tupper et al. both agree that using psychedelics may intensify psychotic disorders symptoms. That is why “participation in contemporary psychedelic research typically excludes people with a personal or family history of psychosis or bipolar disorder” (Tupper et al. 1057). If individual harm occurs in the case of using psychedelics as a preventative measure for suicide, then the individual “failed to obscure the apparent protective effect of classic psychedelic use on psychological distress and suicidality at the population level” (Hendricks et al 286). Participants might experience “acute adverse effects such as nausea and mild headaches” (Tupper et al. 1056) but those effects are temporary with no lasting harm and are of no clinical significance. 

The clinical studies that were done on psychedelics all have the same limitations, sample size. After the ban of psychedelics in the 1960s, studies on the clinical use of psychedelics slowly diminished. The schedule I status of these substances makes research on a large scale practically impossible (Hendricks et al. 281). In the chart of studies that RLC-H and GMG included, the sample size ranged from 9 to 51 people (2108). One of the main problems with small sample size is the generalizability of the result, but those studies all found positive results from the use of psychedelics which show there is consistency and somewhat offsets this limitation. When “very similarly designed but independent studies of the effects of any pharmacological agent gives the same result, it is encouraging” (RLC-H and GMG 2108). The alternative is to rely on self-reports such as the one done by Hendrick et al., but a self-report is a limitation on its own. Bias in the report is inevitable, therefore the actual relationship between classic psychedelics use and psychological distress and suicidality might be obscured (Hendricks et al. 284). Another limitation is maintaining blindness during the studies. Blinding is to make sure that the participants are unaware whether they are in the experimental group (where they will be receiving the substance being tested), or the control group (where participants will be receiving the placebo). However, ensuring blinding is challenging to achieve as studies on psychedelics have to “conform to the rigorous scientific, ethical and safety standards expected of contemporary medical research” (Tupper et al. 1057), meaning subjects must be informed what they are going to be consuming. If somehow participants are not aware of which group they are in, they are usually “unblinded by their experience on active drug” (Carhart-Harris and Goodwin 2109). That poses an obstacle as participants may realize the researchers’ expectations and subconsciously change their behavior to fit those expectations, causing the results to be invalid. 

There was no information gap as all the sources the authors used are reliable and easily traceable through the reference page. Some sources were cited in all of the articles such as the study done by Gasser et al. (2014) and the study was done by Johnson et al (2014), which shows its reliability. All three articles made references to many small clinical studies with locations ranging from the U.S. to Switzerland, all of which found similar results that psychedelics can be beneficial when used correctly in a clinical setting. These studies can be accessed by anyone with an internet connection and do not require any special credentials.

In the future, psychedelic research should focus on designing the study to “minimize risks and to maximize the potential therapeutic benefits” (Tupper et al. 1058), to make clear of the “respective efficacy” and the “optimal pharmacotherapeutic and ancillary psychotherapeutic choices” (Tupper et al. 1058). Tupper et al. and Hendricks et al. both stress that when administering certain psychedelics such as psilocybin, it is important to accompany the treatment with psychotherapy and provide “non-drug assisted sessions” to increase effectiveness (Tupper et al. 1058; Hendricks et al 286). Since a psychologically supportive environment can be costly to provide along with psychedelic aided treatment, researchers should also make sure that it is cost-effective so that it could be accessible to more people (RLC-H and GMG 2110). 

Through the many small clinical studies that all yield similar results, the proof is strong that psychedelics are a valuable asset in treating different mental illnesses. and to prevent suicides. The article “Psychedelics medicine: a re-emerging therapeutic paradigm,” proved that psychedelics have many therapeutic properties that can be beneficial when used in clinical settings to treat mental illnesses such as different types of addiction, PTSD, anxiety. Tupper et al. put the responsibility on policymakers and healthcare professionals to be knowledgeable of the “new approaches to treatments emerging in the field of psychedelic medicine” (1058) so that the general public can have as many healthcare options as possible. The article “The Therapeutic Potential of Psychedelic Drugs: Past, Present, and Future,” provided evidence that psilocybin has antidepressant capabilities, but should go through careful clinical testing before it is accepted as a legitimate treatment. The article “Classic psychedelic use is associated with reduced psychological distress and suicidality in the United States adult population,” through self-reports, found that the use of psychedelics has an overall positive effect on a person’s mental wellbeing and therefore decreases their suicidal behavior. The articles agree with each other that before psychedelics can become a medically acceptable treatment, there needs to be a continuation of scientific inquiry into psychedelics (Tupper et al. 1059), more high-quality clinical trials, (RLC-H and GMG 2109), and more rigorous research to better understand psychedelics (Hendricks et al. 287). 

Works Cited

Carhart-Harris, Robin L, and Guy M Goodwin. “The Therapeutic Potential of Psychedelic Drugs: Past, Present, and Future.” Neuropsychopharmacology, vol. 42, no. 11, 2017, pp. 2105–2113., doi:10.1038/npp.2017.84.

Hendricks, Peter S, et al. “Classic Psychedelic Use Is Associated with Reduced Psychological Distress and Suicidality in the United States Adult Population.” Journal of Psychopharmacology, vol. 29, no. 3, 2015, pp. 280–288., doi:10.1177/0269881114565653.

Jr., William C. Shiel. “Definition of Crossover Study.” MedicineNet, MedicineNet, 4 Dec. 2018, www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=2872.

Tupper, Kenneth W., et al. “Psychedelic Medicine: a Re-Emerging Therapeutic Paradigm.” Canadian Medical Association Journal, vol. 187, no. 14, 2015, pp. 1054–1059., doi:10.1503/cmaj.141124.