You’ve surely seen the hyped news stories. Psychedelic drugs are no longer just for hippies and attendees at raves: they’re the new frontier of mental health treatment, revolutionising how we think about conditions like depression and PTSD and showing major promise in clinical trials.
In this episode of The Studies Show, Tom and Stuart look into psychedelics and mental illness. They start by talking about why scientists think psychedelics might be relevant here - and it’s to do with the theory of the “Bayesian Brain”. Then they get into the studies, and point to some serious hurdles on the way to getting good evidence on this question.
The Studies Show is sponsored by Works in Progress magazine, the best place to find insightful essays on science, technology, and human progress. We’re very grateful for their support.
If you like the sound of The Studies Show, then please consider becoming a subscriber. You can join as a free subscriber and get an email whenever we release an episode. If you join as a paid subscriber, you’ll be able to access some features like chats with Tom and Stuart, and (soon) paid-only episodes. Either way, you can subscribe right here:
Show Notes
Announcement that Australia has legalised psychedelics for some kinds of psychotherapy
A long, highly technical exposition of the Bayesian Brain theory with reference to psychedelics
Criticism of the Bayesian Brain theory more generally
Stuart’s Substack post on psychedelics
The Phase II randomised trial of psilocybin versus escitalopram
The Phase III randomised trial of MDMA for PTSD
The New York Magazine podcast series raising some safety concerns about psychedelic therapy
Eiko Fried’s Twitter thread on a very bad study of psychedelics and mental illness
Credits
The Studies Show is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions.
Episode 4: Psychedelics and psychotherapy