This show.

This show is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

It is for informational purposes. Please consult your health care professional

with any medical questions. Welcome back to Decoding Women's Health. I'm Dr. Elizabeth

Pointer. Psychedelics come with all sorts of associations and preconceived notions.

Tech pros, wild partying, burning man, and the 1970s.

But in recent years, more research has emerged about the potential for psychedelics in clinical settings.

And finally, there are researchers studying these drugs with a specific audience in mind, women.

We really had never tried to properly understand women's biology in the context of many things, really,

but especially in areas like mental health and how we think about treating them.

And particularly as we came into this new world of psychedelics and psychedelic therapy. And for me, that was an incredibly stark, considering

that so many of the mechanisms that psychedelics work by, have so much synergy with the mechanisms

of female biology. That's Dr. Grace Blessed Hopley.

She's a neuroscientist and research associate at King's College London.

She's also the chief scientific officer at a biotech company in the UK focused on psychiatric

and neurologic disorders and the founder of Hystallica, an organization that focuses on psychedelics

and female biology. Much of her academic research focused on cannabinoids, but her background as an

Army Reserve officer and her work with military veterans led her to the field of psychedelics research. She believes that psychedelics can be

powerful tools for helping people living with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder,

which is commonly referred to as PTSD. And she's seen firsthand how these treatments can be

helpful for people from all different walks of life in dealing with mental and physical health challenges.

How did you first get interested in the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics?

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