BBC Future profile on Psychedelics

BBC Future profiles MAPS Founder Rick Doblin, Ph.D., in an extensive article exploring the international impact of psychedelics on science, drug policy, culture, and medicine.

By highlighting the rapid increase in psychedelic research over the past ten years, Ed Prideaux of BBC explains how clinical trial results, favorable media coverage, and the potential development of new mental health treatments are steadily moving the public perception of psychedelics toward mainstream acceptance.

"Now the efforts of Doblin and others are finally paying off,” writes Prideaux. "Promising clinical trials suggest that psychedelics may prove game-changing treatments for depression, PTSD and addiction."

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Latest Research on Psychedelics and Depression

Here’s the latest on how there is a shift in psychiatry toward a new way of thinking about depression, its causes, and therapies.

The profession’s long embrace of the “monoamine hypothesis” — the idea that depression primarily results from abnormal levels of neurotransmitter chemicals in the brain and that drugs can restore the proper balance — is giving way to a more complex understanding and alternative treatments, from ketamine to psychedelics to magnetic stimulation.

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Psychedelics and Isolation

This study assessed the impact of lifetime psychedelic drug use on mental health in relation to the first strict lockdown adopted by various countries (April-July 2020).

The findings showed that regular users of psychedelic drugs had less psychological stress and some personality differences when compared to occasional users and non-users. This suggests that either the use of psychedelics might be a protective factor itself or people with certain previous traits are more prone to frequently using psychedelic drugs.

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