Psychedelic medicine: a re-emerging therapeutic paradigm
Summary & key facts
Researchers around the world have started clinical studies again to see if psychedelic drugs can help treat serious mental health problems. This work picks up after research that stopped around the 1950s. Scientists are running controlled studies to test whether these substances can safely reduce problems like depression, anxiety, addiction and post‑traumatic stress. The field is growing, but the research is still new and more studies are needed before we know how well these treatments work or how they should be used.
- Clinical research teams in many countries have restarted studies on psychedelic substances.
- The renewed research is looking at mental illnesses such as addiction, depression, anxiety and post‑traumatic stress disorder.
- This wave of research follows an earlier period of scientific work that ended around the 1950s.
- Current studies are happening in clinical settings, which means researchers are testing these drugs under medical supervision and control.
- The work is described as a ‘re‑emerging therapeutic paradigm,’ which means psychedelics are being reconsidered as possible medical treatments after a long pause.
Abstract
In clinical research settings around the world, renewed investigations are taking place on the use of psychedelic substances for treating illnesses such as addiction, depression, anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Since the termination of a period of research from the 1950s to the