Mydecine Targets 4 Psychedelic Drugs to Tackle the Mental Health Crisis

Photo by Christopher Ott on Unsplash The role of mental health has been acknowledged in recent years in achieving global development goals. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among those 15 to 29. Depression is one of the leading causes of disability. People with severe mental health conditions die prematurely — as much as 2 decades early — due to preventable physical conditions. According to a study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation for 2017, at least 300 million people struggled with depression, 284 million with anxiety and more than 178 million with alcohol or drug addiction. One familiar method of tackling mental health is psychotherapy. During psychotherapy, a patient speaks with a mental health professional about their moods, feelings, thoughts and behavior. When successful, the patient gains insights and knowledge that can help them cope. In recent years, psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy has been under investigation as there is evidence to suggest that certain hallucinogens have clinical potential to treat mental health issues. The role of hallucinogens is to act as a facilitator for healing experiences and positive outcomes by lowering the resistance or defense of a patient’s inner thoughts to access their deepest feelings — guilt, shame and fear, for example. As a result, it can also reduce the number of sessions between a therapist and a patient to expedite the recovery process. However, although psychedelic therapy may be efficacious and safe to some extent, there are some concerns about the approaches used today.

Significant Risks with Current Psychedelic Therapy Techniques

As psychedelic ... Full story available on Benzinga.com psychedelic mydecine

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