Advances in Psychedelic Medicine
State-of-the-Art Therapeutic Applications
LSD, psilocybin, MDMA, ayahuasca, and other substances are being used to augment therapies for disorders from addictions to chronic depression to PTSD.
Print Flyer
March 2019
Praeger
Pages |
386 |
Volumes |
1 |
Size |
6 1/8x9 1/4 |
Topics |
Psychology/General |
|
Current Events and Issues/Health and Medicine |
Researchers, program administrators, and practicing clinicians explain the most recent developments in using psychedelic substances to treat psychological, physiological, and social problems.
More than a decade ago, the U.S. government lifted its ban on all testing of psychedelic substances. Winkelman and Sessa now provide updated scientific research and applications of these substances, now moving into approved categories of medicine. The text is an up-to-date assessment of the latest advances in the field of psychedelic medicine, covering the use of LSD, psilocybin, MDMA, ayahuasca, and other substances to augment psychotherapies for a range of disorders. It discusses medical and psychiatric concerns, clinical efficacy and safety, ethical considerations, and neuroscience findings regarding the psychedelic compounds.
Topics covered include an overview of psychiatric applications of psychedelics; treatments for addictions and depressive disorders; effects of psychedelics on inflammation and neuroplasticity; evidence for clinical applications of DMT, ayahuasca, and cannabidiol; psychedelic treatment of sociopathic disorders; microdosing psychedelics; training psychedelic therapists; and community-based harm reduction approaches to managing psychedelic crises.
Features
- Describes the history of psychedelics as therapeutic treatments and the current renaissance of interest in them
- Details the training of therapists in applications of psychedelics, and medical theory for the effectiveness of these substances
- Addresses issues of clinical efficacy and safety as well as ethical considerations
- Comprises the latest neuroscience research related to the effects of the psychedelic compounds
- Provides timely information for clinicians, researchers, and advanced students of psychology, medicine, and public health, from leading clinicians, researchers, and administrators in the field
- Author Info
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Michael Winkelman, PhD, is retired from the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University, where he served as director of the medical anthropology program. He is coeditor of Psychedelic Medicine: New Evidence for Hallucinogenic Substances as Treatments and author of Culture and Health: Applying Medical Anthropology.
Ben Sessa, MD, is a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist working in adult addiction services and with PTSD in veterans. Dr. Sessa is a senior research fellow at Bristol, Cardiff, and Imperial College London universities, where he is conducting the UK's first clinical studies with MDMA-assisted therapy for the treatment of PTSD and alcohol dependence syndrome. He is author of The Psychedelic Renaissance.
- Reviews/Endorsements
Reviews
"Recommended. All readers."—Choice
- Awards
Silver Award, Psychology Category — 2019 Nautilus Book Awards
- Look Inside
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