What psychedelics could mean for eating disorders
This is an excellent 'Lucid News' overview by Justin Hampton of the gathering wave of research interest in helping eating disorders with a variety of psychedelics (e.g. ayahuasca, DMT, MDMA, psilocybin) The article begins:
"Chrissy Sandwen’s final wake-up call for her binge-eating disorder came in an unforgettably putrid yet poetic form. All-too-familiar waves of depression and anxiety became magnified during an extended and profoundly lonely stint as a social worker in rural Costa Rica. To top it off, Sandwen found herself overwhelmed by uncontrollable binge-eating episodes, which ignited feelings of self-loathing.
“It felt like my body had been taken over by a demon,” Sandwen recalls. After a friend’s ill-advised decision to flush paper down Sandwen’s toilet led to a sewage flood in her apartment, the ensuing detonation morphed into a teachable moment. “I was like, ‘This is a fucking metaphor for my life. I’m a beautiful, incredible, amazing person, but I am ankle-deep in my own fucking shit.’”
A few days later, Sandwen learned about an ayahuasca retreat near her through Google. From there began a nonlinear, yet ultimately rewarding, path to healing currently being contemplated by a unique subset of those who study and those who struggle with eating disorders ...
... Previously unfamiliar with psychedelic medicine, Lafrance watched a documentary about Vancouver physician Gabor Maté’s work with ayahuasca, and eventually reached out to him personally. Encouraged by what she learned, she later co-wrote a paper on the impact of ceremonial ayahuasca experiences on the eating disorders of 13 women in 2018. Since then, academic and independent researchers alike have followed in her wake.
A Johns Hopkins University study on anorexia nervosa and psilocybin briefly began volunteer intake before it was paused by COVID. (In the meantime, it is still recruiting for patients, according to Johns Hopkins psychiatrist Natalie Gukasyan). Imperial College will embark upon its own 20-patient anorexia/psilocybin study early next year, COVID permitting. MAPS is preparing its own MDMA-assisted study for the treatment of anorexia nervosa and binge-eating disorder. At the University of California-San Diego, researchers Stephanie Knatz and Walter Kaye are finalizing the funding for a safety and tolerability study on psilocybin and its effects on psychopathology, anxiety, depression and weight in anorexia. And Lafrance is currently undertaking an independent study with Utah psychiatrist Reid Robison to pair ketamine with a treatment modality she calls emotion-focused ketamine-assisted psychotherapy for anorexia nervosa at Cedar Psychiatry."