The Mental Healthcare Crisis and the Promise of Psychedelic Medicine

By Bart Magee, Ph.D.

News of the strike of mental health providers at Kaiser Permanente was the latest in a stream of stories of a mental healthcare system stretched far beyond its limits by a growing post-pandemic demand for care and a shortage of psychotherapists, psychiatrists and other providers. This crisis of care started well before the pandemic and will take many years to resolve. In the middle of it all, we are seeing the fruits of the research in psychedelic medicine lead to an explosion of interest in their potential, which begs a critical question: will the recent advances in psychedelic medicine and coming FDA approval of treatments help us expand treatment options and effectiveness help to mitigate the mental healthcare crisis?

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