Psychedelic treatments now run the gamut—and when it comes to mental health and wellness, a growing number of people are ready to give them a try.
In a new survey conducted by The Harris Poll, more than 60 percent of people suffering from anxiety, depression, or PTSD, say they believe psychedelic medicine could play a role in treatment and should be made widely available. It’s the latest research showing the market potential for psychedelics, despite most of them still being federally outlawed.
“We are witnessing a silent crisis impacting people across the globe exacerbated by an ongoing pandemic, and the results of this survey should compel more medical professionals and lawmakers to support in-depth studies on the therapeutic benefits of psychedelic medicine,” Matt Stang, co-founder and CEO of Delic, who commissioned the survey, said in a statement. Delic operates the largest chain of ketamine clinics in the U.S.
“This promising family of new medicines has the potential to be more effective than traditional medicines with minimal side effects, giving people their best selves back,” said Stang. “Our country’s mental health crisis not only impacts public health, but also the economy–each year, untreated mental illness costs the U.S. up to $300 billion in lost productivity.”
Depression in America
More than 40 million Americans suffer from depression or other mental health issues—an epidemic that’s been amplified by the Covid pandemic, climate change, and power imbalances across the globe.
According to the survey’s findings, 63 percent of participants say they have used prescription medications for their anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Most said the drugs helped, but many said they still experienced residual negative feelings, and 18 percent said the medications did not help, or, in some cases, even made the conditions worse.
Treatment resistant depression is extremely common, affecting between 29 to 46 percent of patients, according to research. Treatment resistant depression is defined as two or more medical treatments that fail to yield results.
But where conventional treatments fail—mainly the class of drugs known as SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) like Lexapro, Prozac, and Celexa—psychedelics have proven to be effective in as little as a single dose.
That’s particularly true for the potent psilocybin, which is found in more than 200 species of mushrooms. Last July, one study on psilocybin found it restored neural pathways lost as a result of depression by as much as ten percent after a single dose. The researchers observed increased and improved neural connections just 24 hours after the psychedelic had been administered.
A 2015 study found a single dose of MDMA—best known as the club drug ecstasy or molly—showed significant promise in reducing conditioned fear responses, which are often a long-term side effect of PTSD.
In 2019, researchers found ketamine, a dissociative drug, abated depression for at least a month after a single dose.
With high success rates for psychedelics, 83 percent of the recent survey participants said they would be open to alternative treatments including MDMA (56 percent), psilocybin (62 percent), and ketamine (66 percent).
Psychedelic treatments
Unlike alcohol, tobacco, and heavier substances including methamphetamines, cocaine, and heroin, psychedelics are not addictive.
The use of ketamine in clinical settings is currently legal in the U.S. It has FDA approval for a wide range of uses. Delic, which acquired the Ketamine Wellness Centers last November, operates 12 psychedelic wellness clinics across the U.S., with plans to more than double that over the next 18 months.
MDMA is still classified as a Schedule 1 drug, despite a growing body of research that demonstrate its efficacy, particularly in treating PTSD. It’s been widely studied by MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies), which received the first FDA approval for Phase 3 trials in 2016.
Psilocybin is also classified as a Schedule 1 drug. But in 2020, voters in Oregon passed legislation allowing clinical use across the state. A number of cities have decriminalized psychedelics, which also include LSD and ayahuasca. Denver, Washington D.C., Santa Cruz, and several cities just outside of Boston, including Cambridge, all have decriminalized psychedelics. California now has a measure on the 2022 ballot that would also decriminalize psychedelics.
California is often an early adopter for controversial and progressive legislation, paving the way for similar bills across the country. In 1996, it became the first state to legalize medical marijuana. More than two decades later, 30 states have passed similar laws. It was the first state to mandate ethnic studies in high school. Last year, it passed a bill requiring large retailers to provide gender-neutral toy sections. In 2019, it became the fist state to ban the sale of fur.
New York Times journalist and University of California at Berkeley professor Michael Pollan helped put psychedelic wellness on the map with his 2018 book, How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. Pollan, best known for writings on food, is a three-times James Beard award-winning journalist. His dive into psychedelics, which included his own experiences with a range of substances, helped to remove the stigmas around psychedelics. Pollan posited that not only do these substances hold the potential to bring healing, but they can provide a deeply spiritual experience, which may be key to how a single dose can be so lasting,
“For me, ‘spiritual’ is a good name for some of the powerful mental phenomena that arise when the voice of the ego is muted or silenced. If nothing else, these [psychedelic] journeys have shown me how that psychic construct—at once so familiar and on reflection so strange—stands between us and some striking new dimensions of experience, whether of the world outside us or of the mind within.”
Like the cannabis boom in the last decade as states legalized recreational use, the psychedelic industry is laying in wait, expected to reach $10.75 billion by 2027. The industry’s earned support from high profile investors including Peter Thiel and Kevin O’Leary. And with big legislative victories likely coming in states including Washington, Colorado, and Hawaii—as well as California—later this year, the market appears ready to explode. For those who need it most, it’s not a moment too soon.
“This promising family of new medicines has the potential to be more effective than traditional medicines with minimal side effects,” Stang says.
“We truly believe the world will look back on this moment right before full global acceptance and remark how much more effective treatment has become, in a very short time.”