Non-hallucinogenic psychedelic psychotherapy: Decreasing risk and increasing access, or missing the point?
Journal of Psychedelic Studies May 27, 2024 Joanna Pashdag 1 citation
Psychedelics have shown promise in open-label studies and early clinical trials for rapidly and possibly lastingly relieving conditions such as major depressive disorder, end-of-life anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, smoking, alcohol use, and eating disorders. A key unresolved question is whether the hallucinatory experiences produced by classical psychedelics are necessary for their therapeutic effects, or whether a non-hallucinogenic trip could be equally effective. This commentary considers the value of the phenomenological psychedelic experience and poses the broader question of what any phenomenological experience is for.