After years of being seen as dangerous "party drugs," psychedelic substances are receiving renewed attention as therapies for addiction -- but far more research is needed, according to a new special series of articles in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs , published at Rutgers University. Psychedelics are substances that essentially alter users' perceptions and thoughts about their surroundings and themselves. For millennia, indigenous cultures have used plants with psychedelic properties in traditional medicine and spiritual rituals.
And for a time in the mid-20th century, Western researchers became interested in the potential for psychedelics to help treat a range of psychiatric conditions, including substance use disorders. That research ground to a halt not long after it began, partly due to recreational use of drugs such as LSD ("acid") and psilocybin ("magic mushrooms") as well as the U.S.
federal government's so-called war on drugs. Things have shifted in more recent years. Drugs such as psilocybin, ketamine and MDMA ("ecstasy") are under study again, in what researchers call psychedelic-assisted therapy: In a nutshell, small doses of the drugs are given under medical supervision, in combination with conventional talk therapy.
As the JSAD series highlights, a collection of small clinical trials have tested psychedelic-assisted therapy for helping people with alcohol dependence, opioid addiction and certain other substance use disorders. There have been promis.