According to a CTV, Australia has made a historic move by becoming the first nation to authorize psychiatrists to prescribe specific psychedelic substances to patients suffering from depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
From Saturday onward, Australian doctors are permitted to prescribe MDMA (commonly known as ecstasy) to treat PTSD. Furthermore, patients with resistant forms of depression can be given psilocybin, the active component in psychedelic mushrooms. The Therapeutic Goods Administration of Australia has included these two substances in its list of approved medications.
The decision, initially announced in February and implemented from July 1st, took the Australian scientific community by surprise. It puts Australia at the leading edge of research in this field, according to some scientists.
Chris Langmead, Deputy Director of the Neuromedicines Discovery Centre at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, remarked that the last half-century saw minimal progress in addressing persistent mental health problems.
The escalating acceptance of these substances has influenced legislation in two US states: Oregon legalized adult usage of psilocybin, and Colorado decriminalized it in 2022. President Joe Biden’s youngest sibling stated in a recent radio interview that the President has shown considerable openness towards the medical benefits of psychedelics.
In 2018, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classified psilocybin as a “breakthrough therapy,” a term that hastens the development and evaluation of drugs for serious conditions. Johns Hopkins and other psychedelic researchers have received federal funding, and the FDA issued draft guidelines for designing clinical trials for potential treatments involving psychedelic drugs last month.
However, the American Psychiatric Association has yet to endorse the usage of psychedelics in treatments as the FDA hasn’t made a final determination.
Despite this, medical professionals in the US and other countries, including Australia, have advised that more research is necessary to fully understand the efficacy and potential risks of these substances, which can induce hallucinations.
Dr. Paul Liknaitzky, head of Monash University’s Clinical Psychedelic Lab, expressed concern over issues such as inadequate evidence, the potential for unqualified clinicians to provide services, high treatment costs, and insufficient oversight of training, treatment, and patient outcomes.
The treatment cost in Australia would be substantial, around $10,000 AUD per patient (roughly $6,600 USD).
Despite these challenges, Litnaitzky sees a unique opportunity for Australians to access these substances for specific conditions and acknowledges the progress made in drug policy. He emphasized the importance of being able to provide patients with more suitable and individualized treatment, free from the constraints of clinical trials and strict protocols.
