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AS PSYCHEDELIC DRUGS MOVE CLOSER TO F-D-A APPROVAL… WHAT DOES THE LATEST RESEARCH SHOW ABOUT THEIR POTENTIAL TO TREAT CONDITIONS LIKE P-T-S-D… ADDICTION… AND DEPRESSION?
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DOCTOR ALAN DAVIS STUDIES PSYCHEDELIC THERAPY… AS THE DIRECTOR AT THE CENTER FOR PSYCHEDLIC DRUG RESEARCH AND EDUCATION AT OHIO STATE UNIVERISTY.
HE SAYS RESEARCH SHOWS THESE DRUGS MAY REWIRE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE BRAIN… OFTEN THROUGH INTENSE HALLUCINATIONS… POTENTIALLY HELPING PEOPLE PROCESS TRAUMA AND DIFFICULT EMOTIONS.
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Duration: :49
Super: Dr. Alan Davis – Director, Center for Psychedelic Drug Research
“Well, you know, it’s different for each person in the way that they experience the psychedelic session. Often, people will describe these personally meaningful insights or new understandings and realizations about themselves. For people with trauma, that could look like a new understanding about the traumatic experience that they went through. Or, for some, it might be about understanding why it happened or understanding why they had the reaction that they had to it. For other people, it’s about finding forgiveness for a perpetrator who’s harmed them or finding forgiveness for themselves for a way in which they acted discrepantly from their value system. And for other people, it’s very somatic and physical and less cognitive in terms of these types of insights. Some people just feel better. Their body feels lighter. They feel like they were able to process emotions in their nervous system better.”
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DOCTOR DAVIS SAYS HIS OWN CLINICAL TRIAL AT O-S-U… STUDYING PSILOCYBIN THERAPY IN VETERANS WITH SEVERE P-T-S-D… SHOWS ABOUT 75-PERCENT OF PARTICIPANTS ARE IN REMISSION AFTER COMPLETING TREATMENT.
AND HE SAYS THAT RESULT IS SIMILAR TO OTHER TRIALS HAPPENING ACROSS THE COUNTRY WITH DIFFERENT GROUPS.
BUT DOCTOR DAVIS SAYS THERE’S A MISCONCEPTION THAT YOU CAN JUST TAKE THE DRUG AND FEEL BETTER.
HE SAYS COMBINING THE DRUG WITH THERAPY… PLUS HAVING SOMEONE THERE TO GUIDE PATIENTS THROUGH THE EXPERIENCE… IS A CRUCIAL PART OF THE TREATMENT.
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Duration: :53
“This topic is critically important. Our current mental health system is inadequate to treat the variety of types of people that experience mental health challenges. The treatments that we have don’t meet the needs of the vast majority of people who need them. And for a lot of people, the treatments that we currently have are intolerable. People don’t like them. They don’t feel well. They have side effects that people don’t like. This new treatment has a minimal side effect profile, and you’re only consuming the medication piece of the treatment package a handful of times. And so the risk of side effects is low. The risk of long-term side effects is almost nonexistent, as far as we can tell. There’s almost no addictive potential to psychedelics, so there’s really very few risks. And the upside is potentially a quite dramatic catalyzation of a new path in your life that might lead to feeling better and feeling more connected to yourself and the world around you.”
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BACK IN APRIL… PRESIDENT TRUMP SIGNED AN EXECUTIVE ORDER TO SPEED UP APPROVAL AND FUND RESEARCH FOR PSYCHEDELIC TREATMENTS.
DOCTOR DAVIS SAYS IT’S POSSIBLE WE COULD SEE F-D-A APPROVAL FOR SOME OF THESE THERAPIES IN THE NEXT SIX TO 12-MONTHS.
