A PSYCHEDELIC HIGH

Driven by surge in global trials and low success rate of current medications in treating mental health problems, researchers call for home-grown clinical trials of psychedelic drugs

- ROHINI KRISHNAMURTHY

THE WORLD is on the cusp of a tussle between the need to urgently provide new treatments options for depression and the importance of thoroughly evaluating them before approval. With these words, Vidita Vaidya, a neuroscientist and professor at Mumbai’s Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, captured the essence of the global discourse on the use of controversial substances called psychedelics (a class of hallucinogens) in treating mental health problems. Vaidya was speaking at a science conference in Gurugram, Haryana, on February 24, 2024. “India, too, needs clinical trials to understand how these substances work and their potential risks,” she said.

Psychedelics are drugs that induce states of altered perception, behaviour, consciousness and thought, often with increased awareness of the senses. Though they belong to the same class psychotropic as other drugs for mental health problems, they seem to work better (see 'A class of its own'). Since about 30 per cent of the patients do not respond to current medications, as per a 2019 paper in BMC Psychiatry, psychedelics are increasingly being explored in some countries as alternate therapy for depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health problems. As Vaidya notes, there is burning need for new treatments for depression, which is pushing governments to move quickly. So far, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Israel and a few states in the US (Oregon and Colorado) have allowed use of psychedelics for medicinal use.

A CLASS OF ITS OWN

What are psychedelic drugs and how are they different from other medicines that treat mental health problem