Given that psychoanalysis was a mainstay of treatment, initial research on psychedelic medicine examined whether psychedelic drugs could facilitate the process of psychotherapy, thereby accelerating the treatment process of psychological disorders. Newly synthesized psychedelics were not considered controlled substances, and therefore their clinical and research use was relatively unrestrained. This periodic distinction has been observed by others The “rediscovery” of psychedelics as medicine by Western science first occurred during a period in which biomedical therapeutic interventions in psychiatry were limited, as psychopharmacology had not yet become mainstream practice. ![]() Western medicine’s exploration of psychedelics for treatment purposes can be divided into two distinct periods, with the first occurring between 19 (herein referred to as the “first wave,”), when synthetic psychedelic compounds were just being discovered, and the second (herein referred to as the “second wave”) beginning around the late 1990s and continuing to this day. While the full history of indigenous healing practices has been covered elsewhere, understanding its roots within the historical origins of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy serves as an important reference point, given that modern psychedelic medicine has struggled to include marginalized communities, especially people of color, in this movement, and is only now beginning to acknowledge the importance of their inclusion. For indigenous peoples, psychedelic use is considered a both a sacred and healing act, that requires the guidance of a highly trained spiritual leader (shaman), and entails psychoactive rituals that bring humans closer to the spiritual world, in an effort to treat both physical and spiritual ills. ![]() The use of altered or non-ordinary states of consciousness for medicinal purposes is neither novel nor modern, but rather dates back thousands of years to the spiritual practices of indigenous communities across the world. Inclusion of minorities in futures studies and improved recruitment strategies are necessary to better understand the efficacy of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in people of color and provide all with equal opportunities for involvement in this potentially promising treatment paradigm. ConclusionsĪs minorities are greatly underrepresented in psychedelic medicine studies, reported treatment outcomes may not generalize to all ethnic and cultural groups. There were no significant differences in recruitment methodologies between those studies that had higher (> 20%) rates of inclusion. Of the 18 studies that met full criteria ( n = 282 participants), 82.3% of the participants were non-Hispanic White, 2.5% were African-American, 2.1% were of Latino origin, 1.8% were of Asian origin, 4.6% were of indigenous origin, 4.6% were of mixed race, 1.8% identified their race as “other,” and the ethnicity of 8.2% of participants was unknown. MethodsĪ methodological search of psychedelic studies from 1993 to 2017 was conducted to evaluate ethnoracial differences in inclusion and effective methods of recruiting peopple of color. In 1993, the United States National Institutes of Health issued a mandate that funded research must include participants of color and proposals must include methods for achieving diverse samples. Despite renewed interest in studying the safety and efficacy of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of psychological disorders, the enrollment of racially diverse participants and the unique presentation of psychopathology in this population has not been a focus of this potentially ground-breaking area of research.
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