Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy

Psychedelic-assisted therapy is the intentional use of a psychedelic medication within a specific therapeutic protocol and context designed to promote safety and to maximize healing benefit.

Video: What is Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy?

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Dr. Devon Christie explains what psychedelic-assisted therapy is and how it differs from traditional therapy or simply ingesting a psychedelic outside of a clinical setting.

The Arc of Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy

Psychedelic-assisted therapy can be divided into five phases: Assessment, Preparation Sessions, Medicine Sessions, Integration Sessions, and Closure. We will discuss shortly what is included in each.

Example Protocols for MDMA, Psilocybin, and Ketamine-Assisted Therapy

Psychedelic-assisted therapy is unique because the medicine is not taken on a long-term basis but rather taken a limited number of times in combination with therapy. For example, in the clinical trials led by MAPS for MDMA-assisted therapy to treat PTSD, the protocol is:

  • Assessment and Screening
  • 3 Preparation Sessions
  • 8-hour MDMA Medicine Session
  • 3 Integration Sessions
  • 8-hour MDMA Medicine Session
  • 3 Integration Sessions
  • 8-hour MDMA Medicine Session
  • 3 Integration Sessions and Closure (Mitchell et al., 2022)

In protocols for psilocybin-assisted therapy, it’s possible that the medicine is taken even fewer times, for example even just once (Goodwin et al., 2022).

Video: Group Therapy

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Psychedelic-assisted therapy can also be offered in groups. Within an Indigenous context, sacred plant medicines have been taken in group settings since time immemorial. In this video, we’ll look at how group therapy can look like in a clinical setting.

References

Goodwin, G. M., Aaronson, S. T., Alvarez, O., Arden, P. C., Baker, A., Bennett, J. C., ... Malievskaia, E. (2022). Single-Dose Psilocybin for a Treatment-Resistant Episode of Major Depression. New England Journal of Medicine, 387, 1637-1648.

Mitchell, J. M., Bogenschutz, M., Lilienstein, A., Harrison, C., Kleiman, S., Parker-Guilbert, K., Ot'alora G, M., Garas, W., Paleos, C., Gorman, I., Nicholas, C., Mithoefer, M., Carlin, S., Poulter, B., Mithoefer, A., Quevedo, S., Wells, G., Klaire, S. S., van der Kolk, B., Tzarfaty, K., … Doblin, R. (2021). MDMA-assisted therapy for severe PTSD: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 3 study. Nature medicine, 27(6), 1025–1033.