Psychedelic drugs are a kind of psychoactive substance that produce substantial alterations to perception, cognition, and emotion. So-called classic psychedelics, such as LSD and psilocybin, are defined by their serotonergic mechanism of action. Historically, psychedelics have been used in ritual and religious contexts across
several cultures for hundreds of year.
Recently, there has been a trend of increasing recreational use of psychedelics in Europe and the US, as evidenced for instance by the European Drug Monitor and the Global Drug Survey. LSD or psilocybin microdosing (ingesting small, sub-subjective, doses) is on the rise. Furthermore, many people participate in psychedelic retreats involving large doses of psychedelics, especially involving psilocybin or ayahuasca, which typically last several days and are organized in ritual or meditative settings.
We are also currently witnessing a psychedelic revival in scientific and clinical research Psychedelics are increasingly being studied in clinical studies. Based on data from preliminary clinical trials, psychedelics appear to have a strong therapeutic potential for the treatment of several psychiatric disorders, including severe depression, addiction, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety related to a life-threatening medical diagnosis, post-traumatic stress disorder and cancer-related anxiety disorders. In sum, there is a ‘psychedelic renaissance’ and widespread optimism regarding the potential
therapeutic effects of psychedelics coupled with calls for caution.
In the extant literature, several different explanations have been offered as to how psychedelics could exert their therapeutic effects. Some have pointed out the potential of psychedelics to occasion mystical-like or self-transcendent experiences, which many people consider to be among the most meaningful in their lives.
Others have suggested that psychedelics loosen our prior beliefs, thereby opening a window of opportunity for adopting more positive beliefs and evaluations. But at the same time, psychedelics also induce a number of other more biologically basic effects including an increase in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDN), which in turn stimulates neuroplasticity.
However, the primary causal mechanisms remain poorly specified and a large amount of uncertainty remains. An integrative perspective on how these different explanations are related is lacking, as different authors have tended to emphasize or focus selectively on one or another explanatory mechanism.
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