Australia clears legal use of MDMA and psilocybin to treat PTSD and depression
Starting July 1, 2023, Australia will allow psychiatrists to prescribe certain hallucinogens in medical settings to treat PTSD and treatment-resistant depression.
Starting July 1, Australia will allow the legal use of MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, and psilocybin, the hallucinogenic ingredient in “magic mushrooms,” to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and treatment-resistant depression, respectively.
Authorized by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), Australia’s drug regulator, this landmark decision will make the country one of the world’s first to recognize psychedelic drugs as legitimate medical treatments, according to news reports. In making the decision, the regulatory body cited “sufficient evidence” that the drugs can be helpful to certain patients with PTSD and depression, although currently, no drugs containing the psychedelics have been fully evaluated for safety and effectiveness and added to the TGA’s database of approved drugs.
The step will reclassify both MDMA and psilocybin from prohibited substances to controlled drugs, meaning they can now be legally prescribed and taken for select purposes. It will also establish a way for psychiatrists to become authorized to prescribe and administer the drugs in clinical settings. In clinical trials, patients given psychedelics are closely monitored by healthcare professionals in controlled settings, which will be the same case for patients attempting to receive psychedelic-assisted therapy in Australia, per the decision.
A growing number of studies and clinical trials suggest that psilocybin may help patients with treatment-resistant depression, potentially by boosting connectivity between different areas of the brain. The hallucinogen MDMA, also known as molly, increases the activity of certain neurotransmitters in the brain, such as serotonin, as well as hormones like oxytocin and prolactin — a property that could help treat PTSD by allowing patients to work through trauma under reduced levels of arousal and stress, according to recent studies.
However, some scientists say there is not yet enough research surrounding psychedelics in therapeutic settings and that Australia’s decision to authorize these drugs as medicines happened too soon.