A growing body of scientific literature has revealed that psychedelics have the potential to treat a variety of mental disorders. Drugs such as ketamine, ecstasy (MDMA) and psilocybin have shown in clinical studies that they are capable of treating psychiatric disorders, including treatment-resistant depression, eating disorders, anxiety and substance-use disorder.
As a result, major investors have increasingly turned their eyes to the nascent psychedelic sector and directed hundreds of millions of dollars toward the research and development of psychedelic-assisted therapies. One of the biggest draws of psychedelic-assisted treatments is that they kick in relatively quickly and provide long-term mental health benefits with few side effects.
Prior research has shown that just a single dose of these substances followed by talk therapy with a trained professional is enough to offset psychiatric symptoms for years, making psychedelic-assisted therapy a great alternative to traditional mental health treatments.
More typical depression treatments such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) can take several weeks to cause noticeable effects, and they have to be taken consistently for years to sustain their antidepression effects. Furthermore, they aren’t always effective, and are known to cause a wide variety of negative side effects including sexual dysfunction, weight gain and nausea.
Psychedelic-assisted therapy typically occurs in three stages: preparation, the guided psychedelic experience and integration. As the name suggests, the preparation stage involves building trust between the patient and clinician and preparing the patient for the upcoming session. Therapeutic psychedelic experiences are guided by trained therapists and they can last for up to eight hours.
The integration stage is critical because this is when patients learn how to apply any insights they made during the psychedelic experience into their lives. However, shorter guided psychedelic sessions could be more effective for patients who have never had a psychedelic experience and are wracked with anxiety.
Longer sessions may also require the expertise of more than one trained clinician to keep an eye on the patient, which isn’t feasible because there is a significant shortage of clinicians trained to offer psychedelic-assisted therapy.
In addition to holding up the number of physicians who could be helping other patients, longer sessions increase the cost of treatment, often making it inaccessible to many patients. Reducing the duration of psychedelic trips could be the key to making the treatment more accessible and expanding access from a limited number of patients to the mass market. Shorter guided psychedelic sessions could ultimately lead to mass adoption by freeing up available therapists to work with other patients and lowering the cost of treatment.
It would be interesting to see what innovations companies such as atai Life Sciences N.V. (NASDAQ: ATAI) come up with to make psychedelic-assisted therapies accessible and affordable for the mass market.
About PsychedelicNewsWire
PsychedelicNewsWire (PNW) is a specialized content distribution company that (1) aggregates and distributes news and information on the latest developments in all aspects and advances of psychedelics and their use, (2) creates PsychedelicNewsBreaks designed to quickly update investors on important industry news, (3) leverages a team of expert editors to enhance press releases for maximum impact, (4) assists companies with the management and optimization of social media across a range of platforms, and (5) delivers unparalleled corporate communication solutions. PNW stays abreast of the latest information and has established a reputation as the go to source for coverage of psychedelics, therapeutics and emerging market opportunities. Our team of seasoned journalists has a proven track record of helping both public and private companies gain traction with a wide audience of investors, consumers, media outlets and the general public by leveraging our expansive dissemination network of more than 5,000 key syndication outlets. PNW is committed to delivering improved visibility and brand recognition to companies operating in the emerging markets of psychedelics.
To receive instant SMS alerts, text “Groovy” to 888-902-4192 (U.S. Mobile Phones Only)
For more information please visit https://www.psychedelicnewswire.com
Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the PsychedelicNewsWire website applicable to all content provided by PNW, wherever published or re-published: https://www.psychedelicnewswire.com/Disclaimer
Do you have questions or are you interested in working with PNW? Ask our Editor
PsychedelicNewsWire (PNW)
San Francisco, California
www.psychedelicnewswire.com
415.949.5050 Office
Editor@PsychedelicWire.com
PsychedelicNewsWire is part of the InvestorBrandNetwork.
