CPDD Statement on Psychedelics: Cautions and Support for More Investment in Psychedelic Research
- CPDD supports expanded federal and private sector investments in clinical studies examining the potential of psychedelic and dissociative medications for the treatment of psychiatric conditions.
- CPDD cautions against premature and/or hyperbolic misinterpretation of the careful, but limited, clinical research knowledge base as currently indicating quick fixes for a broad variety of mental and physical conditions.
- The full therapeutic benefits of these drugs are still being established. Therefore, sweeping statements about benefit to various patient populations across clinical settings are premature, and may lead the public to false conclusions and unwarranted use.
- Legislators and others should consider the unintended health consequences of legislation/regulation that is not public-health oriented.
Current State of Psychedelic Research: Results are promising but preliminary and not conclusive
- Researchers have conducted small rigorous studies, under tightly controlled clinical research conditions, of clinician-monitored administration of psychedelics. Most of these studies paired psychedelics with guided psychosocial therapy or “psychedelic-assisted therapy.” These studies show early promise in relieving cancer-related psychosocial distress, and in treating mental health conditions including substance use disorders, depression, anxiety, and PTSD.
- While early studies suggest that psychedelics may be effective for some psychiatric conditions, claims by the press and other media, private sector investors, and grassroots advocates have uncritically promoted presumed benefits of psychedelics. Many of these claims are not grounded in accurate, objective assessment of the current state of psychedelic research, and the rigorous conditions under which those studies operate. However, some of these inaccurate claims have prompted some state and local governments to decriminalize or legalize public use of psychedelics, which might lead to harmful unsupervised use before efficacy and safety are firmly established by scientific study.
What is Needed: Increased private sector and federal government-sponsored research on the potential therapeutic benefits of psychedelics
- Increased funding for psychedelic research by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will ensure that vital, rigorous research will be conducted to fill gaps not being addressed by medication developers and private philanthropy, and will provide independent verification of effectiveness. Ideally, there would be some degree of coordination or at least cooperation in these efforts by public-private sector initiatives that have been effective in other areas of medication development.
- CPDD encourages the continued investment by the NIH, as well as the private sector, in research on the potential therapeutic benefits of psychedelics, urges policymakers and the public to engage critically with purported claims about psychedelics in the media, and to seek out credible, evidence-based sources of information regarding the relative risks and benefits of psychedelics, which are still being established empirically.
Read the complete statement by clicking here.