Understanding Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy
Some intervention techniques are unsuccessful with patients with mental health disorders. When an individual has gone through almost every treatment type but has not seen or experienced progress, psychedelic-assisted therapy may be the solution. Findings show that the safe administration of psychedelic compounds in a controlled setting can help patients get a psychedelic experience that promotes improvements in their mental health.
The Science Behind Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy: What Research Tells Us
While psychedelics have been used in cultural and religious practices for a long time, Western medicine is now starting to reconsider their effects and how much this treatment can help patients. Psychedelics is the overall term for a class of substances that can alter an individual’s state of consciousness. They can often change one’s thinking, feelings and perception.
The mechanisms of psychedelics are known to affect people at biochemical, neural and psychological levels. After several clinical trials completed in the 1950s and ‘60s, researchers discovered that compounds of various psychedelics directly affect the 5-HT2A receptor in the brain, which helps functions in pain perception, learning, memory and the sleep cycle. The receptor mechanisms may lead to an individual experiencing therapeutic effects from the psychedelics, as they reduce stress and other feelings associated with mental health disorders.
Some professionals use psychedelics like ketamine or psilocybin, a psychedelic compound associated with “magical mushrooms,” in psychedelic therapy today, though researchers have also studied the combination of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and psychotherapy. At Principium Psychiatry, we offer ketamine therapy to target severe treatment- and medication-resistant depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and pain.
