Research to address depression, addictions, stress or anxiety in a different way advances with academic, business, political and social momentum | Clinical trials are legal and Biden is expected to give the green light in the next two years to the use of MDMA and psilocybin
The long journey of psychedelics has entered a promising new phase in the US. Exploring the potential of therapies with substances such as psilocybin, MDMA, LSD, or ketamine to treat mental disorders -ranging from depression and substance abuse to eating disorders, post-traumatic stress, anorexia nervosa or the stress of terminal illnesses- live a true golden age in the country. And this rebirth is not exactly a hallucination, which develops in parallel to the confirmation of a severe mental health crisis which affects nearly one in five American adults, and addiction.
Since the pioneering Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research opened at John Hopkins University in September 2019, they have proliferated specialized centers in research in other prestigious institutions such as the universities of New York, Berkeley or Yale or Mount Sinai Hospital.
A business of 3,600 million
His work is added to that of entities such as the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, which has been researching in this field since 1991. Also, to the dozens of private companies such as Compass Pathways, Atai LifeScience, or MindMed. More than 30 of them are already listed on the stock market and create a market that last year amounted to 3.6 billion dollars, with expectations of rising to 8,300 million by 2028. The new wave, moreover, moves driven by philanthropists and investors.
Social and political acceptance is also advancing of psychedelics as therapy, both in state governments and in Washington. In fact, this scientific field already stood out in the 1950s and 1960s, but from the 1970s it was demonized and ostracized by the authorities, who took advantage of the leap of psychedelics from laboratories to the counterculture to outlaw substances and slow down what was a promising field of research.
Inflection point
However, this emergence of psychedelics as therapy has been years in the making. Although research, and consumption, never disappeared and despite the fact that in the 90s there was already a reactivation of controlled studies, in 2006 a turning point came.
That year, a study titled “Psilocybin can cause mystical-type experiences with substantial and sustained personal significance and spiritual meaning” was published in the ‘Journal of Psychopharmacology’, breaking down barriers. That same year, The Supreme Court issued a ruling in favor of a Brazilian sect that was allowed to import into the US for its ayahuasca ritualswhich contains the psychedelic DMT.
And with the increase in studies came the ‘boom’, especially with the publication in 2016 of another study that proved the significant benefit of psilocybin in terminal cancer patients (almost 80% of whom saw their anxiety and depression reduced). . Or with the publication in 2018 of Michael Pollan’s book ‘How to change your mind’. After 50 years of propaganda and a war on drugs that in the US is viewed with increasing suspicion and skepticism, the perception is changing.
The science
Now there is talk of the great promise of psychedelics, which in their natural form have been used for centuries. Although much remains to be understood about its cognitive and therapeutic mechanics and studies are still limited, the The results of many of those carried out are remarkable.. What research has shown is the ability of these substances to intensify the neuroplasticity of the braincreating new pathways and neural connections that can change negative thought patterns and allow you to process trauma or regain control over anxiety or depressive impulses.
Psychedelics work a lotfaster and more intensely than antidepressantshave fewer side effects, they have not been proven to cause physical dependence and do not require daily consumption for years. That same speed is what makes them a bad business model, which explains the intense search for patents in the private sector, not only for new compounds with molecules based on psychedelics but with faster acting and without the “trip& rdquor; (which unleashes doubts among researchers convinced that powerful mystical and emotional experiences are a fundamental part of its effectiveness), but also of therapies and spaces to receive treatments.
Politics
Despite the fact that the main psychedelics continue to be illegal and classified by the DEA as substances that do not see medical benefits and do have potential for abuse (or with risk of dependence even if they have medical potential), social and political change is also evident in the US .
In the recent midterm elections, the citizens of Colorado made the state the second to legalize the cultivation and personal use by people over 21 years of age of psilocybin, the active ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms, which two years earlier had been decriminalized for medical use by citizens of Oregon. Legalization has also been taking place since 2019 in some cities, starting with Denver and going through Washington DC, Seattle and several cities in California, Massachusetts and Michigan.
Studies in Texas
Beyond the personal exploration of these psychotropic compounds (and the rise of microdoses, a true social phenomenon that extends from Silicon Valley to mothers’ groups), there is a scientific, business, and political commitment to research into dose treatments. complete in medical spaces, under supervision and accompanied by psychological therapy. States like Texas are funding studies to explore LSD treatment for post-traumatic stress, in large part because of its impact on the country’s war veterans. 13% of those who have passed through the armed forces suffer from it and the Veterans Department spent 17,000 million dollars in disability payments to a million affected.
Last July, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez managed to include in the Defense budget an amendment that supports research for veterans and active duty military. Also in the chambers are two bills to force the DEA to stop barring terminally ill patients from taking controlled substances that have passed previous phases of clinical studies and to create research and pilot programs at the Department of Veterans Affairs. And last month, just one day after a law to expand research into the medical use of marijuana was passed in the US, a caucus specifically dedicated to advancing psychedelic treatments was born in the Lower House.
imminent changes
In July, a letter from the Department of Health was made public, reflecting the conviction of the Joe Biden Administration that the Federal Medicines Agency will give green light in the next two years to the use of MDMA in therapies to address the posttraumatic stress and of the psilocybin for depression. The agency had previously authorized the use of these psychedelics in clinical trials and three years ago approved a drug with esketamine with which depressions resistant to other treatments are treated (which also has the approval of the European Medicines Agency). With ketamine also approved as an anesthetic but often prescribed for depression, hundreds of clinics dedicated to the substance have opened across the country.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration “agrees that too many Americans are suffering from mental health and substance use problems, which have been exacerbated by the covid pandemic, and that we must explore the potential of assisted therapies by psychedelics to deal with this crisis & rdquor ;, read in the letter from the Department of Health unit. The document also reported that the creation of a federal working group is being explored, which is committed to collaboration with the private sector, to prepare for the expected regularization.