Psychedelics in the Treatment of Addiction

If a study were to test a serotonergic hallucinogen to treat addictive disorders, several factors need to be considered from a design perspective. Would one consider choosing a homogenous group such as alcohol, opiate, or nicotine dependence or include individuals suffering from a variety of addictive disorders? Other factors should include: use of validated diagnostic and outcome measures, use of severity of illness measures, a placebo control group, random assignment, objective ‘blind’ raters, and longitudinal follow-up. Given the historical LSD and alcoholism data suggesting time limited anti-addictive effects lasting up to several weeks to months, a multiple dosing schedule is strongly indicated given the chronic nature of addiction. Furthermore, the psychotherapy aspect of the study would have to be well elucidated to embed, contain and give meaning to the experience. Such psychotherapy should be standardized with a measured ‘dose,’ manualized and include supervision. It should include standard components of addiction treatment around motivational enhancement and relapse prevention but should also include spiritually oriented components related to meaning, connection and intention.

This video is from Psychedelic Science in the 21st Century, a conference taking in place in San Jose, California on April 15-18, 2010. The conference was organized by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) in collaboration with the Heffter Research Institute, the Council on Spiritual Practices, and the Beckley Foundation.

This video was produced by Green Fuse Media, contact Nathan at greenfusefilms@gmail.com

To learn more about MAPS or to support our work, visit maps.org.