Psychedelic Medicine For Primary Care?
Psychedelic Medicine For Primary Care?
Some "hot" academic writing... previewed.
The readers of The Frontier Psychiatrists could be forgiven for imagining this is the only thing I write. It's a daily newsletter where I'm thrilled to have collaborators, but most of it is me. This is the 497th article published. Not all are 💎s. That's part of the charm of having to write something every day. I've written about psychedelic medicines before, and it continues to be an area of serious interest for me as a physician. I've written 100s of pages more, but it's academic writing for general medical journals. I know, I know. I write a lot.
I've never used any of these psychedelic compounds outside of treatment with ketamine for depression. I've never had a cigarette. I've never had a drink of alcohol in its entirety in my entire life.
I'm a real bummer when it comes to recreational substances. That having been said, as a science writer, I spent a good deal of the last year working with a group of excellent colleagues to get a series of review articles on the topic of psychedelic medicine completed for an audience of primary care physicians and general medical doctors. Much has been written on the subject of psychedelics by therapists, shamans, venture capitalists, and psychiatric futurists. Little of that writing seems to address the concerns of medical doctors in other areas of practice.
Along with friends, I helped get this series out the door, which will be published with peer review in March 2024. You might not have noticed these based on the title of the prior article in which they were linked, but I felt it only fair to my psychedelic enthusiast readership to provide the links here with an article title they will notice:
1. Historical Perspective and Overview (Introduction)
2. LSD
3. DMT and Ayahuasca
4. Psilocybin
5. Ibogaine
6. MDMA
7. Ketamine
8. The Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of Psychedelic Therapeutics (Conclusion)
Psychedelic medicines work fast. They do not have the same adverse effect profile as traditional psychiatric medication, particularly when it comes to metabolic syndrome and obesity. These are both serious health risks and given the lackluster performance of oral antidepressants and their augmentation agents and a wide spectrum of psychopathology, I wanted to create a review series that would help doctors who care for every other organ system have some sense of what they're looking at, when it comes to both risks and benefits.
Prior articles on psychedelic medicines are to be found here:
Dear Psychedelic Exceptionalism
What the History of Medicine Has to Say About Mandatory MDMA for Prescribers
I’m Psychic…About The Timing of Regulatory Guidance
bookmarked all the pre-prints to read!! looks like some quality work Owen