Will "behavioral psychedelics" help patients make a lasting, positive change?

In a text published in Frontiers in Psychiatry, scientists at UCLA Health and Harvard Medical School coined the term "behavioral psychedelics" - whose research aims to find new ways to support mental health and resilience.

"Changing human behavior may seem simple, but is extremely difficult, especially for behaviors that result from years of thinking and acting in a relatively rigid, routine way," the authors write, Dr. George Slavich, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, and Dr. Edmund Neuhaus, assistant professor of psychology at Harvard. "One of the emerging strategies for achieving behavior change involves using psychedelic compounds to make the mind more plastic and open," they add.

According to the authors, "psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy" can provide many health benefits and even reduce treatment costs, but there is currently no standardized therapeutic approach.

"Looking to the future, we believe that further refinements are needed to operationalize and test the elements of psychedelic psychotherapy to determine the best standard of care for addiction, psychiatric, somatic and somatic addiction treatment. behavioral health problems, ”the researchers point out.

The authors say their concept of behavioral psychedelics aims to develop "targeted approaches to therapeutic change that will help people achieve sustained functional improvement in self-care, social ties, and family, school and school responsibilities. and social life to help them live the way they want. ”

"We believe that psychedelic compounds have the potential to assist the mind transformation process. To maximize these benefits, research is needed to identify best practice and measurable treatment indicators, 'write Slavich and Neuhaus.

Source: ScienceDaily