Key Concepts
Mind-Bending Therapies
- The drugs that put the “psychedelic” into the sixties are now the subject of renewed research interest because of their therapeutic potential.
- Psychedelics such as LSD and the compound in magic mushrooms could ease a variety of difficult-to-treat mental illnesses, such as chronic depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and drug or alcohol dependency.
- Clinical trials with various substances are now under way in humans.
More from this issue of Mind
December
2007 Issue- Head Lines Good-bye, Alex
- Facts and Fictions in Mental Health What "Psychopath" Means
- Head Lines Left Brains vs. Right Brains
- Buy the Digital Edition
Mind-altering psychedelics are back—but this time they are being explored in labs for their therapeutic applications rather than being used illegally. Studies are looking at these hallucinogens to treat a number of otherwise intractable psychiatric disorders, including chronic depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and drug or alcohol dependency.
The past 15 years have seen a quiet resurgence of psychedelic drug research as scientists have come to recognize the long-underappreciated potential of these drugs. In the past few years, a growing number of studies using human volunteers have begun to explore the possible therapeutic benefits of drugs such as LSD, psilocybin, DMT, MDMA, ibogaine and ketamine.
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