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Science Weekly

Will psychedelic drugs transform mental health treatment?

Science Weekly

The Guardian

Science

4.21K Ratings

🗓️ 9 May 2023

⏱️ 18 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Psychedelic drugs have long been been used for their mind-altering effects. Now, they are making their way into western medicine as a treatment for mental health disorders. From July, psychiatrists in Australia will be able to prescribe MDMA for post-traumatic stress disorder, making it the first country in the world to recognise psychedelics as medicines. The US could soon follow, with plans for the US Food and Drug Administration to be asked for approval to treat PTSD with MDMA this year. Ian Sample speaks to correspondent Hannah Devlin about how the science behind psychedelic therapy has progressed, and hears from Prof Celia Morgan about what treatment is actually like, what we know about the risks and what’s left to learn. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is the Guardian. This summer see the European box office smash that critics aren't raving about

0:14.7

The count of Monte Cristo is timeless and thrillingly new. Five-star says total film.

0:21.0

Rotten tomatoes rates it at 100%. It's a big exciting swashbuckling

0:25.8

adventure stunning, a genuine triumph based on Alexander Dumas's classic tale.

0:31.0

A few count of his life. The Count of Monte Cristo, in Cinema's now, certificate 12A. They can send you on a journey through waterfalls of twisting colours, turn you into a floating

0:52.2

orb of light or make you feel like you're slowly sinking

0:56.1

into the floor.

0:59.1

But increasingly, the mind-altering powers of psychedelic drugs like LSD,

1:04.0

MDMA and silosibin aren't just being experienced at raves and in muddy fields.

1:09.3

In hospital clinics and research labs, they're being tested to see if they can treat a range of mental health disorders from depression to PTSD.

1:19.0

So far these are proved difficult to treat with conventional medicines and therapies.

1:25.5

Right now the evidence for psychedelic therapy looks promising, so much so that the market

1:30.6

is already worth billions of dollars.

1:33.0

But exactly how effective are these drugs?

1:36.0

What does scientists really know about how they work and the risks they pose?

1:41.0

And how long could it be before they reach a clinic near you?

1:45.0

I'm the Guardian Science Editor Ian Sample and this is Science Weekly.

2:06.8

Hana Devlin, you're a science correspondent at The Guardian and at the start of this year we did a look ahead episode together and one topic you mentioned that I thought we should dive a bit deeper into was the use of psychedelics to treat mental health problems and addiction issues.

2:11.1

Take me back a bit. Where did this research really start?

2:14.3

Psychodallics has got quite a long history in medicine.

2:18.0

Initial interest began more looking at how psychedelic drugs could help us understand the basis for psychiatric

2:26.2

disorders, so using them as trying to understand mental illness, and then over time this

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