What medicines are available for psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy?
There are many molecules being studied that may assist in psychotherapy, a mental health treatment provided by licensed mental health providers.
The FDA is currently considering new drug applications for patented versions of Ketamine, MDMA, Esketamine, Psilocybin, LSD, DMT. Many of these have been noted as "Priority Review". Research into these generic compounds extends over 100 years, with early research studying the effects of mescaline in indigenous plant-medicine practitioners of the desert Southwest on the body and mind. The experience that accompany these molecules was labeled "psychedelic" in the 1950's, which has become the umbrella term for the experience and after-effects of ingesting these compounds. Pharmaceutical companies are studying patented forms of these drug compounds to produce and sell at scale for profit. Many of these molecules are found in their whole forms in nature.
These and other plant-based or synthetic compounds may be combined in ways that may or may not elicit any associated experience. The psychiatry movement advertised and sold the idea that a daily pharmacological treatment was sufficient mental healthcare. Pharmaceutical companies are studying what these and other compounds can do for our bodies and minds without unintended effects of a psychedelic experience. This model perpetuates an inaccurate model of mental health which centers drug therapy, altogether dismissing non-pharmacological approaches including mental health counseling and psychotherapy.
You are not just a meat bag of chemicals. You are a meat bag of chemicals having an experience.
Drugs considered anti-depressants or anti-anxiety elicit changes to human psychology (thoughts/feelings/behaviors/somatic) without a psychedelic experience, and may sometimes be helpful as an adjunct to mental health counseling with a psychotherapist, someone who specializes in the human experience, and the effects of human biology on the human experience.
Licensed psychotherapists may have specialized experience with one type of compound or a certain class of medicines, or no experience at all in working with the addition of a drug to psychotherapy.
As racemic ketamine is currently available in various routes of administration and settings by prescription, all Fellows of the Psychedelic Institute of Mental Health & Family Therapy have practical experience and ongoing professional development in ketamine-assisted psychotherapy and support in particular, and in psychedelic medicine assisted psychotherapy in general.
PlanetMedicines
Anil Ananthaswamy
Angela T.H. Kwan
"Inadequate response to first- and second-line pharmacological treatments for psychiatric disorders is commonly observed. Ketamine has demonstrated efficacy in treating adults with treatment-resistant depression (TRD), with additional off-label benefits reported for various psychiatric disorders. Extant literature supports the potential use of ketamine for the treatment of PTSD, OCD, and alcohol use disorders with significant improvement of patient symptoms."