Cargando…

Taking Psychedelics Seriously

Background: Psychiatric research in the 1950s and 1960s showed potential for psychedelic medications to markedly alleviate depression and suffering associated with terminal illness. More recent published studies have demonstrated the safety and efficacy of psilocybin, MDMA, and ketamine when adminis...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Byock, Ira
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5867510/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29356590
http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/jpm.2017.0684
_version_ 1783308977608589312
author Byock, Ira
author_facet Byock, Ira
author_sort Byock, Ira
collection PubMed
description Background: Psychiatric research in the 1950s and 1960s showed potential for psychedelic medications to markedly alleviate depression and suffering associated with terminal illness. More recent published studies have demonstrated the safety and efficacy of psilocybin, MDMA, and ketamine when administered in a medically supervised and monitored approach. A single or brief series of sessions often results in substantial and sustained improvement among people with treatment-resistant depression and anxiety, including those with serious medical conditions. Need and Clinical Considerations: Palliative care clinicians occasionally encounter patients with emotional, existential, or spiritual suffering, which persists despite optimal existing treatments. Such suffering may rob people of a sense that life is worth living. Data from Oregon show that most terminally people who obtain prescriptions to intentionally end their lives are motivated by non-physical suffering. This paper overviews the history of this class of drugs and their therapeutic potential. Clinical cautions, adverse reactions, and important steps related to safe administration of psychedelics are presented, emphasizing careful patient screening, preparation, setting and supervision. Conclusion: Even with an expanding evidence base confirming safety and benefits, political, regulatory, and industry issues impose challenges to the legitimate use of psychedelics. The federal expanded access program and right-to-try laws in multiple states provide precendents for giving terminally ill patients access to medications that have not yet earned FDA approval. Given the prevalence of persistent suffering and growing acceptance of physician-hastened death as a medical response, it is time to revisit the legitimate therapeutic use of psychedelics.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5867510
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2018
publisher Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-58675102018-04-01 Taking Psychedelics Seriously Byock, Ira J Palliat Med Special Report Background: Psychiatric research in the 1950s and 1960s showed potential for psychedelic medications to markedly alleviate depression and suffering associated with terminal illness. More recent published studies have demonstrated the safety and efficacy of psilocybin, MDMA, and ketamine when administered in a medically supervised and monitored approach. A single or brief series of sessions often results in substantial and sustained improvement among people with treatment-resistant depression and anxiety, including those with serious medical conditions. Need and Clinical Considerations: Palliative care clinicians occasionally encounter patients with emotional, existential, or spiritual suffering, which persists despite optimal existing treatments. Such suffering may rob people of a sense that life is worth living. Data from Oregon show that most terminally people who obtain prescriptions to intentionally end their lives are motivated by non-physical suffering. This paper overviews the history of this class of drugs and their therapeutic potential. Clinical cautions, adverse reactions, and important steps related to safe administration of psychedelics are presented, emphasizing careful patient screening, preparation, setting and supervision. Conclusion: Even with an expanding evidence base confirming safety and benefits, political, regulatory, and industry issues impose challenges to the legitimate use of psychedelics. The federal expanded access program and right-to-try laws in multiple states provide precendents for giving terminally ill patients access to medications that have not yet earned FDA approval. Given the prevalence of persistent suffering and growing acceptance of physician-hastened death as a medical response, it is time to revisit the legitimate therapeutic use of psychedelics. Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. 2018-04-01 2018-04-01 /pmc/articles/PMC5867510/ /pubmed/29356590 http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/jpm.2017.0684 Text en © Ira Byock 2018; Published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. This Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.
spellingShingle Special Report
Byock, Ira
Taking Psychedelics Seriously
title Taking Psychedelics Seriously
title_full Taking Psychedelics Seriously
title_fullStr Taking Psychedelics Seriously
title_full_unstemmed Taking Psychedelics Seriously
title_short Taking Psychedelics Seriously
title_sort taking psychedelics seriously
topic Special Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5867510/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29356590
http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/jpm.2017.0684
work_keys_str_mv AT byockira takingpsychedelicsseriously