Psychedelic assisted therapy (PAT) content analysis: Discourses in United States and Netherlands
January 1, 2025 DOI: 10.46569/t722hk61m via OpenAlex
Summary
Patients with addiction, anxiety, depression, existential distress, and PTSD have found relief from symptoms through psychedelics after failing traditional treatments. The Netherlands is motivated by harm reduction and research leadership, while the US focuses on helping veterans and addressing a mental health crisis. Barriers in both countries include bureaucracy and public opinion. Additionally, discussions around sexual trauma in relation to PTSD and psychedelic-assisted therapy are often overlooked.
Study at a glance
| Design | qualitative study |
|---|---|
| Population | texts from the Netherlands and the United States regarding psychedelic-assisted therapy |
| Key finding | The motivations for exploring psychedelic-assisted therapy differ between the Netherlands and the United States, with distinct barriers to expansion in both contexts. |
Abstract
Individuals with addiction, anxiety, depression, existential distress, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), have experienced rapid and long-lasting relief of debilitating symptoms after ingestion of psychedelics.After experiencing treatment resistance or dropout, patients experienced success with psychedelics they had not with prescribed medicine.The Netherlands (NL) and the United States (US) are considering psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) as a novel treatment.I analyzed the reasons for this, and they will be described and explained in this thesis.NL has been known for its legislative tolerance toward drugs while the US is known for the anti-drug policies commonly referred to as the War on Drugs.I conducted a qualitative content analysis of texts from NL and the US using open and thematic coding.I found NL's reasons to explore PAT are related to harm reduction and a desire to globally lead research, however, barriers to expansion include bureaucracy, public opinion, and funding.In the US, the primary motivations for PAT are helping veterans with PTSD, tech billionaire funding and addressing the nationwide mental health crisis.In the US, barriers to the expansion of PAT include bureaucracy and limitations on populations deemed legitimate for access to pharmaceuticals.Further, I found that while sexual trauma and military sexual trauma (MST) make up criteria for PTSD and other diagnoses, they are not often discussed in conversations about PAT for PTSD or other diagnoses that PAT may be useful for, contributing to the silence around sex, sexual trauma and military sexual trauma (MST).