Saturday, December 4, 2021

Diane Rehm Show: Using Psychedelic Drugs To Treat PTSD & Other Mental Disorders

 A grief-stricken American infantryman whose buddy has been killed in action is comforted by another soldier. In the background a corpsman methodically fills out casualty tags, Haktong-ni area, Korea.  August 28, 1950.  Sfc. Al Chang. (Army)


N.B. The use of psyhedelic drugs to treat PTSD (and other psychological disorders) should take place under supervision of trained medical personnel. In the absence of medical expertise, the fundamental rule of psychoactive drug use remains in effect: "It's like an elevator. Sometimes you get a lift. Sometimes you get the shaft."

Millions of Americans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, including hundreds of thousands of veterans. Yet standard drug and therapy treatments have mixed success rates. Some cases of PTSD are considered untreatable. But researchers are seeing dramatic results from therapy that uses psychedelic drugs to treat PTSD, depression and addiction. Therapy involving substances like Psilocybin and MDMA, better known as ecstasy, show 80 percent success rates years after treatment. Diane and a panel of guests discuss new research on drugs that have long been considered dangerous and illicit.

Guests


Tom Shroder 

author and editor. His non-fiction books include: "Acid Test," "Old Souls," and "Fire on the Horizon: the Untold Story of the Gulf Oil Disaster."

Dr. Michael Mithoefer 

a psychiatrist practicing in Charleston, South Carolina. He divides his time between clinical research and outpatient clinical practice specializing in treating post-traumatic stress disorder.

Nicholas Blackston 

marine veteran, served in Iraq. He was a participant in a drug trial for the treatment of post traumatic stress disorder.

Dr. James Giordano 

scholar-in-residence and chief, Neuroethics Studies Program at the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University Medical Center

Read An Excerpt: 'Acid Test'

Excerpted from "Acid Test: LSD, Ecstasy, and the Power to Heal" by Tom Shroder. Copyright 2014 Blue Rider Press. All rights reserved.
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