NIDA, NIMH Directors Describe Promise, Challenges Associated With Psychedelics Research

The research challenges associated with the use of psychedelics to safely treat mental illness and substance use disorders are enormous —but so too is the promise, wrote Nora Volkow, M.D., director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA); Joshua Gordon, M.D., director of the National Institute on Mental Health (NIMH); and Eric Wargo, Ph.D., a science writer with NIDA, in aViewpoint article inJAMA Psychiatry.“Although existing pharmacologic treatments such as antidepressants and medications for opioid use disorder are valuable for many people with these conditions, a large proportion are not helped by those treatments. … [P]sychedelic drugs represent a promising psychotherapeutic frontier,” they w rote.Yet so far, the therapeutic evidence for psychedelics is minimal, and “the hype has gotten ahead of science,” they continued. “Much remains unknown about how psychedelic compounds work, how to administer them most effectively and safely, and how to identify which patients are the best candidates and which are at risk of adverse outcomes.”Volkow, Gordon, and Wargo outlined several challenges associated with the study of psychedelics:Subjective experience:There is evidence to suggest that psilocybin ’s therapeutic efficacy is tied to the mystical-type experiences commonly reported by people who take the drug. “This connection remains controversial, however, and researchers are exploring whether desired [effects on depression] can be decoupled from the co...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: contextual factors JAMA Psychiatry Joshua Gordon NIDA NIMH Nora Volkow placebo psychedelics research subjective experience Source Type: research