Psychedelics in psychiatry: Oh, what a trip!

This January edition of the American Journal of Psychiatry is memorably devoted to psychedelics. The editorial comments: "Thirty years after publication of the first peer-reviewed studies of the effects of dimethyltryptamine in healthy volunteers and nearly 20 years after publication of the first study of psilocybin administration to individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder in the modern post-prohibition era, we are delighted to introduce this special issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry on psychedelics. This marks a moment of legitimacy for what was once considered a fringe, fledgling movement driven solely by a select group of zealously dedicated scientists and clinicians. In contrast to this early nascent period, the enthusiasm, interest, and pursuit of scientific and medical research on the psychiatric applications of psychedelic compounds has exploded in recent years, leading to the declaration of the current phase as a “renaissance” period for psychedelic research. There is objective data to support this view. The combined sample size across all modern-era published clinical trials evaluating a psychedelic compound for treatment of one or more mental health conditions now exceeds 1,000 (with the largest representation, by far, being those participating in psilocybin studies), and commercial investments in psychedelic drug development now number in the billions of dollars. Psychedelic clinical trials are now routinely published in very high-tier biomedical journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine and Nature Medicine. However, despite these markers of the field’s transition to a greater state of maturity, fundamental questions and methodological challenges remain unanswered and in critical need of additional research. Sufficiently addressing and answering these scientific and clinical questions will be critical for the future clinical success of these agents … The potential for therapeutic strategies utilizing psychedelic drugs is exciting and yet there is a long path ahead toward clinical success. We believe that it is important to honor the journey to this point, spanning multiple generations, several decades, and countless hours of work by numerous individuals. In this spirit, we hope this special issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry on psychedelics will be the first of many more to come over the next decades and generations."

For more psychedelic news and research, visit the psychedelic health professional network homepage.