Legal psychedelic medicine is poised to soon disrupt the multibillion-dollar mental health field. Treatments being trialed today in clinical settings using substances like psilocybin-containing mushrooms will soon offer legal alternatives to the more than 50 percent of patients receiving therapy for major depressive disorder (MDD) who do not respond to approved depression medications. The creation of new effective therapies will likely put pressure on healthcare providers to examine the upside of psychedelic therapies and how such treatments will inevitably affect their bottom line. While these therapies will not be a cure-all for everyone, over the next three to five years an expanding number of psychedelic treatments will produce alternatives for the many patients who find no relief from FDA-approved, first-line therapeutics like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Since legalizing the use of psilocybin-containing magic mushrooms in 2020 through a ballot measure, Oregon is now in the process of creating an intricate statewide system for qualified caregivers to deliver psilocybin treatments in therapeutic settings. Sessions using psilocybin can last over six hours, which does not include vital therapy before and after treatments. MDMA-assisted therapy for severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which is very close to being an FDA-approved therapy, will likewise require significant clinician involvement before, during and after a session.
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