If vulnerable patients are going to take powerful hallucinogens, they deserve better evidence.
By Olga Khazan Illustration by Mark Pernice No psychiatric treatment has attracted quite as much cash and hype as psychedelics have in the past decade. Articles about the drugs’ surprising results—including large improvements on depression scores and inducing smokers to quit after just a few doses—earned positive coverage from countless journalists (present company included ). Organizations researching psychedelics raised millions of dollars, and clinicians promoted their potential to be a “new paradigm” in mental-health care. Michael Pollan’s 2018 psychedelics book, How to Change Your Mind , became a best seller and a Netflix documentary. Psychedelics were made out to be a safe solution for society’s most challenging mental-health problems.
But the bubble has started to burst: It’s been a bad year for fans of psychedelics.
A few months ago, two articles appeared, one in The New York Times and another in Business Insider , that portrayed major figures in psychedelics research as evangelists whose enthusiasm for the drugs compromised the integrity of their findings. In August, the FDA rejected the first application for therapy assisted by MDMA, the drug commonly known as ecstasy, saying that it “could not be approved based on data submitted to date,” according to the company that brought the application, Lykos . And five people , including two doctors, were recently charged in the death of the Friends actor Matthew Perry, who was found unconscious in his pool after he took large doses of the psychedelic ketamine. (Three of the five have reached plea agreements ; the other two pleaded not guilty .) About the Author
Me, But Better: The Science and Promise of Personality Change . She has also written for The New York Times , the Los Angeles Times , The Washington Post , and other publications. She writes a Substack on personality change.
Get Creative with Cannabis: The Ultimate Guide to Painting and Pottery Workshops
Creative with Cannabis Cannabis and creativity go hand in hand—especially
