Responding to the Current Psychedelics Landscape: A Call for Cross-Sector Collaboration

As psychedelics become more available through legal and underground channels, clinicians lack sufficient knowledge and training to discuss their benefits and harms with patients, creating liability risks that may grow if federal deregulation occurs. Stakeholders should collaborate to expand public and clinical education and develop widely accessible post-trip counseling services for users struggling with ongoing emotional and neuropsychiatric effects, which can sometimes be disabling. Thoughtful collaboration can establish a foundation for psychedelic medicine as a new clinical practice area.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract Psychedelics are becoming increasingly available within approved regulatory pathways and in “underground” or recreational settings. However, clinicians’ knowledge and training is insufficient, leading to limitations when discussing benefits and harms with patients. These insufficiencies also create liability risks for clinicians which may be heightened if, as anticipated, the federal government deregulates psychedelics. In light of rapidly changing conditions, stakeholders should work together to increase public and clinical education. Stakeholders should also develop pathways for widely available post-trip counseling services. Such pathways should address the needs of users struggling to process the ongoing emotional and neuropsychiatric effects of their psychedelics experience which can sometimes be disabling. Thoughtful and timely collaboration can lay the groundwork for psychedelic medicine, a newly developing area of clinical practice.