You’ve seen the headlines, now hear the Full Story. Every weekday, join Guardian journalists for a deeper understanding of the news in Australia and beyond. You can support The Guardian at theguardian.com/fullstorysupport
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/series/full-story
Ecstasy, LSD and magic mushrooms: are these drugs the future of therapy?
Scientists treating depression and a range of other mental illnesses have been running controlled trials using MDMA and psychedelic drugs such as LSD, and the results have been encouraging. Dr Robin Carhart Harris, head the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London, discusses his work showing how psilocybin (or magic mushrooms) can be used to assist psychotherapy for difficult-to-treat depression. Dr Rachel Yehuda, director of the Center for Psychedelic Psychotherapy and Trauma Research at Mount Sinai school of medicine in New York, discusses her success in trials using MDMA as a treatment for PTSD