Johns Hopkins research exploring innovative treatments of mental illnesses using psilocybin therapy represents a significant step toward moving psychedelics into the mainstream. These efforts, in collaboration with Yale and New York University, involve the creation of a psychedelics psychiatric program featuring the most cutting edge work being done in in psychiatry right now. Psychiatrists are actually being trained on the proper use of psychedelics, and as a result, all universities have become a lot more open about their research into this once-forbidden area. There’s momentum elsewhere, too.
Psychedelic treatments have caught the attention of philanthropists and business people who are funding additional research in a big way. Another avenue along the road to gaining widespread legitimacy is that these treatments are now starting to get regulatory approval from cities and states. In time, the use of psychedelics as a remedy for various ailments could mirror what’s happening with marijuana. Studies have shown progress in helping treat anxiety, depression and PTSD, as well as help prevent suicides in ways that currently prescribed medicines just aren’t able to do.
The focus, however, needs to be on bridging the gap between psychedelics and the medical system. It has just been in the past five years or so that mainstream medicine has even begun to accept psychedelics as a form of treatment for severe mental health issues that plague our communities. The future holds quite a bit of promise for people who are suffering in terms of having access to non-addictive and efficacious ways to improve their health and wellbeing that are not driven by the profit motive.
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