Ecstasy and psilocybin are shaking up psychiatry
Not ecstasy and psilocybin, but a few years ago, I met a psychiatrist who had worked in the armed forces and then alongside a crisis SWAT team. After decades of seeing people hit rock bottom, he learned about ketamine therapy as a treatment for treatment-resistant depression. He described it to me, a psychedelic skeptic, as “the closest thing to a miracle drug that I’ve seen in my career.”I’m not sure why, maybe because he seemed so much like the opposite of a “woo-woo” clinician, but the way he said it stuck with me. It has been fascinating to watch this space and the forward-thinking mental health companies that have been developing in this space.