Key points
Psychedelic-assisted therapy shows promise for behavioral health conditions.
People with OCD may benefit from psychedelic-assisted therapy.
Psychedelic-assisted therapy followed by ERP may be more effective long-term for people with OCD.
Source: Marek Piwnicki/Pexels Oregon, where I practice as a licensed psychologist, recently passed laws that permit the use of psilocybin (“magic mushrooms”) for what is called “ psilocybin services .” Psilocybin services involve a client meeting with a licensed facilitator and undergoing a dosing session, in which they take psilocybin under the care of the facilitator until the facilitator decides the client is ready to end their dosing session. Following the session, they may schedule an optional "integration" session in which the client processes what happened during the dosing session and afterward.
Psilocybin services have some overlap with what is known more broadly as psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT). PAT involves a client undergoing a psychedelic trip (e.g., psilocybin, MDMA, LSD) while being supervised by one or more—often two—facilitators. Typically, in PAT, someone attends one to three dosing sessions (using the psychedelic) with integration sessions in between.
Research to date supports the use of PAT in treating behavioral health conditions such as posttraumatic stress disorder ( PTSD ; Henner, Keshavan, & Hill, 2022 ) and major depressive disorder ( Romeo, Karila, Martelli, & Benyamina, 2020 ). (In contrast to PAT, psilocybin services in Oregon are explicitly not considered health care or treatment.)
Although I’m not trained in psilocybin services or PAT, I occasionally field questions from my clients about the use and effectiveness of psychedelics as a possible treatment for what they’re struggling with. As I specialize in anxiety , my practice includes many people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Recently I came across a review published this year (2024) on the use of PAT in OCD , and I thought I’d share the results. The Study
Currently, the evidence-based treatment for OCD with the most research support is exposure and response (or ritual) prevention (ERP for short). ERP involves clients systematically approaching and staying in contact with stimuli they typically avoid or find triggering. Although ERP can be […]
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