Australia is set to become the first country in the world to prescribe MDMA (commonly known as ecstasy) and psilocybin (found in “magic mushrooms”) as treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. This innovative approach marks a significant shift in the medical landscape, as Australia recognizes the potential benefits of psychedelic-assisted therapy in addressing mental health challenges. Psychedelics, researchers have suggested, can reset the brain when used in the right way.

Like cannabis and people who have turned to self-medicating, with the increasing need for alternative treatments and growing evidence supporting the efficacy of these substances, this decision could potentially pave the way for a revolution in mental health care. 

Australia’s commitment to prioritizing unconventional approaches to mental health exemplifies a nation’s capacity to overcome stigmatization of specific treatments and allocate resources to these methods due to their effectiveness.

“It’s not for everybody. We need to work out who these people are that are going to have bad experiences, and not recommend it,” says Susan Rossell, a psychiatrist at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, who is working on Australia’s only active clinical trial testing psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for treatment-resistant depression.

Rossell fears that, administered improperly, the drugs could give people bad trips and leave them with increased psychological issues: “That’s the worst-case scenario,” she says. Her own unpublished research suggests that 10–20% of trial participants have a “really terrible time” with these drugs.

Why is there a stigma around psychedelics?

In the 1960s, psychedelics became associated with the anti-establishment counterculture, and “bad trips.” Psychedelic drugs were included by politicians such as former President Nixon when the War on Drugs was declared. The same administration was against marijuana and outlawed it. Around that time an Israeli researcher Raphael Mechoulam was identifying THC and CBC in cannabis plants and when called upon by the American administration suggested cannabis as harmless.

Like any medicine, psychedelic drugs need to be administered in a controlled medical environment. 

In recent years, there has been resurfacing interest in psychedelic science, with growing advocacy for their use in treating mental illness. Supported by evidence-based research, psychedelics have emerged as powerful tools in the realm of psychedelic-assisted therapies and the development of improved mental health treatments.

To destigmatize psychedelics, it is crucial to address the lack of awareness, education, and perception surrounding them. This can be achieved by encouraging individuals to openly share their knowledge, engaging in honest conversations based on scientific facts to foster an environment of reduced fear and increased acceptance.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), Australia’s drug regulator, approved this decision after a thorough three-year process and extensive consultation with experts. Patients will only have access to these drugs under supervised clinical settings and will not be able to obtain them for home use.

Psilocybin is converted to psilocin in the body and acts on serotonin receptors in the brain. A single dose of 25mg has shown significant antidepressant effects for up to three months 

Only psychiatrists who have received pre-approval through TGA authorized prescriber scheme will be able to prescribe MDMA and psilocybin for the treatment of PTSD or treatment-resistant depression.

Prescribers must submit a proposed treatment protocol that includes information on dosage and the number of therapy sessions. The TGA expects protocols that are similar to those used in clinical trials conducted both in Australia and internationally. Additionally, the proposed protocol must receive approval from a human research ethics committee.

While Australia’s decision to prescribe MDMA and psilocybin marks a critical milestone, challenges lie ahead. Adequate training and education for healthcare professionals will be essential to ensure safe and effective administration. Additionally, ongoing research and data collection will be crucial in further understanding the long-term benefits and potential risks associated with these treatments. Nonetheless, this pioneering move by Australia opens the door for other countries to explore the potential of psychedelic-assisted therapy, offering renewed hope for individuals battling mental health disorders worldwide.

Australia’s groundbreaking decision to prescribe MDMA and psilocybin for PTSD and depression signifies a revolutionary shift in mental health care. By embracing the potential of psychedelic-assisted therapy, Australia takes a bold step toward providing alternative, potentially life-transforming treatments to individuals in desperate need. As research and public perception continue to evolve, this decision could have far-reaching impacts on the global mental health landscape.

We need to address the growing mental health crisis right away. Stigma and shame around mental illnesses have caused problems in finding effective treatments. The negative beliefs and misinformation about psychedelics have also held back progress. But there is hope. If we start early and educate people, we can reduce stigma and improve access to better treatments.

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I can’t count how many friends of mine have travelled to the Amazon to use psychedelic drugs. It’s much easier these days to find local shamans offering ayahuasca local to you. And if you are crafty and have access to a forest in Canada for amanitas like I do. Today you can easily forage for your own mushrooms.

But like in the early days of acid when synthetic psychedelics could be too powerful and melt your brain, those self-medicating or going to centers and shamans for help now know that micro-dosing – taking the medicine in tiny amounts – could be beneficial against trauma, depression and PTSD.

Psychedelics  appear to work by encouraging the growth of new connections between neurons in the brain. And research, like research into cannabis CBD and THC, is slowly catching up to science.

Researchers don’t fully understand why psychedelics have such powerful therapeutic effects. Now, a study in mice suggests that psychedelics all work in the same way: they reset the brain to a youthful state in which it can easily absorb new information and form crucial connections between neurons.

DMT (Dimethyltryptamine) is a very strong psychedelic found in a number of animals and plants. Psychedelic drugs can affect all the senses, altering a person’s thinking, sense of time and emotions. Psychedelics can cause someone to hallucinate, seeing or hearing things that do not exist or are distorted.

Psychedelics such as MDMA (also known as ecstasy), ketamine and psilocybin — the active ingredient in magic mushrooms — are known for producing mind-altering effects, including hallucinations in some cases. But each compound affects a different biochemical pathway in the brain during the short-term ‘trip’, leaving scientists to wonder why so many of these drugs share the ability to relieve depression, addiction and other difficult-to-treat conditions in the long term.

Gül Dölen, a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and her colleagues sought answers by studying how psychedelics affect social behaviour in mice. Mice can learn to associate socializing with positive feelings, but only during an adolescent ‘critical period’, which closes as they become adults.

Researchers gave a range of psychedelics to mice, including ketamine, psilocybin, MDMA, LSD and ibogaine. The drugs seemed to reopen a ‘critical period’ in which mice can learn to associate socializing with positive feelings.

The scientists trained mice to associate one ‘bedroom’ in their mouse enclosure with mousy friends and another room with solitude. They could then examine how psychedelics affected the rodents’ room choices — a proxy for whether the drug affects the critical period.

“It gives hope that [critical periods] are not irreversible and a very careful cellular understanding of psychedelic drugs might hold the key to reopening brain plasticity,” says neurologist Takao Hensch, part of the Nature study.

Some applications in this research may treat people after strokes when there is a critical window for physical rehab after the stroke event.

About anyone looking to self-medicate, find a trusted shaman or micro-dosing center. Never try this without a mentor. 

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