Modern clinical research on psychedelics shows promising outcomes for psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy with appropriately screened participants in controlled settings, though some patients relapse or respond poorly. Individual and contextual factors (set and setting) appear to shape the psychedelic experience and clinical outcomes, suggesting the therapeutic context may moderate efficacy. This review searched PubMed/Medline and Scopus for clinical studies describing structured psychotherapeutic interventions alongside psychedelics. Ad-hoc and adapted therapeutic methods were identified. Common principles, points of divergence, and future directions are discussed, focusing on therapeutic stance, degree of directiveness, and potential suggestive effects of information provided to patients.
A survey of people with chronic pain conditions found that, except for sciatica, those who used psychedelics (full doses or microdoses) reported better pain relief than with conventional medication. Full doses outperformed conventional medication for fibromyalgia, arthritis, migraine, and tension-type headache. Microdoses provided significantly better relief than conventional medication for migraines and comparable relief for the other conditions. The findings suggest that psychedelics may hold value for treating some chronic pain conditions.