Abstract
Hallucinogenic and psychedelic compounds have been used by mankind for millenia for religious rituals, but their development for therapeutic purposes was blocked by severe legal restrictions beginning in the 1950s for fear of abuse. Interest in these compounds has resurged due perhaps to the depleted pipeline of other drugs being developed for depression and particularly PTSD. Ketamine, ecstasy, psilocybin and LSD do not share a common biochemical mechanism of action, but they do seem to share an ability to cause a PTSD or depressed patient to feel experiences of joy, oneness, out-of-body, or perceptual rapture that dwarf his illness experience or open him up to an acute psychotherapeutic experience. Their use in controlled settings can be successful, but is far from giving medical evidence for safe repeated recreational use.
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Belmaker, R.H., Lichtenberg, P. (2023). Ketamine and Psychedelics in PTSD and Depression: The New Frontier or the New Pandemic?. In: Psychopharmacology Reconsidered. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-40371-2_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-40371-2_16
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