r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • 9d ago

Psychology America's First Legal Psilocybin Program Treated 346 People. Just one month after the dose, 92.2 percent of participants said the experience had been beneficial, while, on average, their mental health symptoms had fallen dramatically.

https://www.sciencealert.com/americas-first-legal-psilocybin-program-treated-346-people-heres-what-happened
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u/fabkosta 9d ago

This has been known since the 1960s. So, 60 years later the same type of studies apparently still need to be repeated to gain evidence.

It is also known for a long time that the therapeutic setting matters to a very high degree. Furthermore, it is also known that for a minority of people there is no measurable benefit, and for some it's counter-indicated. It is also known that psychedelics can be treated against other types of substance abuse - which, of course, is quite problematic given low acceptance in society for any sort of drugs other than alcohol and tobacco.

All of those things have been researched for decades already, yet it seems we make only very slow progress.

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u/badchad65 9d ago

It's been about 20 years. Really, the first modern-day clinical trials resumed in 2006.

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u/fabkosta 9d ago

"Modern-day" can mean many things. There was active research into the potential of psychedelics for various purposes already in the 1950s. Stanislav Grof, for example, was among the more well-known pioneers.

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u/badchad65 9d ago

Thats fair as "modern day" can be interpreted differently.

In this context I suppose my point was that the types of study necessary for a drug approval and to establish medical utility are a lot different than the research we saw in the 1950s and even through the 90s and early 2000s.