Staying indoors and social distancing might not be the best mix for the one in five adults who experience mental illness in Australia. Not-for-profit organisation Mind Medicine Australia (MMA) have claimed that medical doses of psychedelics might be the answer to help some Australians struggling at the moment.
Beyond Blue has reported an all-time high in user activity in their online forum dedicated to coping during the coronavirus outbreak. And in a bid to ease the strain on people's mental health, MMA is calling for a special task force to deliver psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of mental ill-health in Australia.
Tania de Jong is the co-founder of MMA, and told The Feed approved mental health treatments currently lead to remission in about 35 percent of cases.
MMA's proposed treatment, which is not available in Australia, involves administering drugs like MDMA and psilocybin in a medical dose, which is a dose required in a clinical environment to help a patient into an altered state of consciousness which enables therapy.
De Jong says the proposed sessions would all take place in a medically controlled environment, a hospital or clinic, and that medicines never leave the clinic.
In recent overseas trials it has been found to alleviate symptoms for chronic mental health conditions like depression, anxiety and PTSD by 60 to 80 percent.
The data on the success of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy has led to the treatment receiving "breakthrough therapy designation" in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration.
"There's been no innovation in treatment for nearly five decades in this space, so we have increasing mental illness numbers," de Jong told The Feed.
"But there are insufficient effective treatments available for doctors and their patients."
The federal government hasn't weighed into this debate so far. A few weeks ago, they announced a $74 million package to be delivered over the next two financial years to support the mental health and wellbeing of all Australians. A spokesperson for the Department of Health has told The Feed that a number of those programs funded provide early intervention and support, such as telephone and online crisis support.
"Psychotherapists and counsellors play an important role in assisting individuals and families during relationship difficulties, in managing grief and loss and providing assistance in times of personal crisis," a spokesperson said.
Dr Stephen Bright is the co-founder of Psychedelic Research in Science and Medicine (PRISM) and a senior lecturer at Edith Cowan University. He is currently working on a number of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy trials.
PRISM is working alongside St Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne on a trial, it began earlier this year. The trial will see 40 patients receive psilocybin, the psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms, along with a short program of psychotherapy and clinical support. The trial is for terminally ill patients who are experiencing depression or anxiety.
Dr Bright says currently there isn't the infrastructure available to deliver these therapies widespread, and believes MMA's announcement during the coronavirus pandemic is opportunistic.
Do we have enough trained therapists?
In Australia, psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy has only occurred in trials, and has never been administered at a public service level. Dr Bright worries about the infrastructure available to deliver the therapy with limited numbers of qualified health professionals to give patients care in a safe environment.
"We have a total of five people that are trained in how to actually provide [the therapy] and the training is comprehensive," he said.
Dr Bright, along with his co-therapist, attended a week-long intensive training course in the Netherlands to understand how to practice the therapy. His research into the use of MDMA in the treatment of PTSD at Perth's Edith Cowan University is trying to determine the capacity of psychologists and psychiatrists in Australia to perform psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.
"A drug assisted therapy session lasts eight hours, there is no psychiatrist or psychologist in Australia that does an eight hour session at the moment," he said.
"So this is a complete paradigm shift in the way we provide services. And so it's going to take a number of small steps before we're even at a position where we can realistically talk about rolling this out within public health services."
To fill the gap of qualified therapists to administer psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, MMA are planning a therapist training program that will begin in 2021.
"We have a waiting list of over 250 GPs, psychiatrists, psychologists, drug and alcohol addiction specialists and others who are on a waiting list for that training in Australia," de Jong said.
This training will be conducted by leading clinical psychologist Renee Harvey who's been working on recent psilocybin trials with the UK's Imperial College. The course will run for four months with a mixture of online and in person classes. De Jong says Harvey is designing the course with the world's best practice programs in the USA and Europe.
"So that [Australian therapists] can quickly get off the curve," she said.
Is research into psychedelic treatments in danger?
Dr Bright's is currently involved in a trial of MDMA for the treatment of post traumatic stress disorder, but this is currently on hold due to the coronavirus. He worries the move to community treatment at this stage will jeopardise the research into psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.
"Not only is it premature, we don't have enough data yet to support that these are feasible psychotherapies in the community," he said.
"I feel like the message that's come out from MMA actually gets in the way of what we're trying to do at the moment."
Despite the concerns of Dr Bright, de Jong told The Feed Australia's Therapeutics Goods Association has told them they will "categorically support the overseas trials" of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.
Co-founder of MMA Peter Hunt told The Feed the research in Australia won't lead to prescribed medicine for years, and doesn't believe waiting is in the best interest of patients.
"If you just wait for the research to be completed, there'll be a whole host of others who will have had miserable lives," Hunt said.
If this story raised issues for you, help is available. Contact a crisis support service below.
- Lifeline 13 11 14
- beyondblue 1300 224 636
- Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467
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