Mental health is as difficult to deal with as it is to treat. One of the hardest across the board is PTSD. Many prescription medications can actually make PTSD worse, strengthen the symptoms, or can lead to unforeseen dependencies. Which is why Australia has decided to be the first country to approve the use of psilocybin, better known as Magic Mushrooms, and MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine). Specifically for the treatment of PTSD and depression.
“There is some compelling research, the evidence is growing, and psychedelic-assisted therapy may offer hope to a small number of patients where other treatments have been attempted without lasting success.” Professor Richard Harvey, Chair of the The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists’ (RANZCP’s) Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Steering Group, said.
It’s not as though this suddenly means that you can get mushrooms from a pharmacy. Given the strength of these substances, their control is extreme. And like any drug-assisted therapy, it will be meted out accordingly, nor is it being treated as a miracle cure.
“But psychedelic-assisted therapy is not a miracle cure that promises rapid recovery. People, and potentially very vulnerable people, can understandably feel distressed or let down if their experience does not match their expectations of this therapy,” Harvey continued. So even though this treatment has been given the green light, it’s being very carefully and closely watched.
In fact, psilocybin and MDMA are still marked as schedule 9 drugs. Which, in Australia, means a prohibited substance. Most other countries are still in clinical trials with these substances, Australia will be the first to move into very small regulation for the treatment of debilitating mental afflictions.
