What are psychedelic therapy’s main benefits?

Psychedelic therapy seems to be a promising tool for the management of mental health conditions including depression,^[1][2][3][4] anxiety,^[3][4] and substance use disorders^[5][6][7] (primarily alcohol and tobacco use disorders). Currently, the strongest evidence exists for depression and anxiety, including difficult-to-treat conditions like treatment-resistant depression (when two different antidepressants have failed to work) and depression/anxiety related to major illnesses (e.g., terminal cancer).^[1] Even in people with no apparent mental or physical diseases, psychedelic therapy has demonstrated long-term (>1 year) improvements in well-being.^[8][9] The vast majority of research has been done using psilocybin, although ayahuasca and LSD have also been studied with seemingly comparable efficacy.^[4]

A major benefit of psychedelic therapy is the minimal dosing required to achieve a therapeutic effect. Unlike antidepressants, which need to be dosed daily and can take upwards of 4 weeks to begin to work, a single psychedelic session has been found to improve depression and anxiety symptoms rapidly (in some studies within 1 day), with effects potentially lasting 6 months or longer.^[10] While positive effects have been consistently shown after a single session, there is some evidence to suggest that two psychedelic sessions produces better results.^[4]