W H AT W E MI S SE D

Psilocybin and
MDMA prove their
psychotherapeutic
mettle
—
Over the past year, psychoac-
tives that had been mostly used
as recreational drugs started
really establishing themselves
as frontline mental-health
treatments. In an April study,
published in the New England
Journal of Medicine, 59 patients
with depression were divided
into two groups: one received
psilocybin (a.k.a. psychedelic
mushrooms); the other received
escitalopram (a selective
serotonin reuptake inhibitor and
a smaller dose of psilocybin).
Both had therapy alongside the
treatment. At the end of the six-
week study period, those in the
psilocybin group performed bet-
ter on a self-rating depression
survey than those receiving the
escitalopram—though the dif-
ference was just shy of statisti-
cal significance. In an unrelated
Nature Medicine study pub-
lished in May, 90 people suf-
fering from PTSD were similarly
divided into two groups, one of
which received three doses of
MDMA—the active ingredient in
In a series of TIME/Harris Poll na- of those were with patients who already ecstacy—plus talk therapy. The
tional surveys conducted this winter had a psychiatric diagnosis. Among peo- other received the therapy and
T O P : I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y T H E H E A D S O F S TAT E F O R T I M E ; R I G H T: I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y T O D D D E T W I L E R F O R T I M E

and spring, about half of respondents ple without a pre-existing diagnosis, vol- a placebo. The conclusion: 67%
of the people who had taken
reported using telehealth since the pan- ume declined by more than 40%, suggest-
MDMA no longer met the criteria
demic began, compared with about 25% ing that virtual appointments were more
for a PTSD diagnosis, compared
who said they had beforehand. But only helpful for people already served by the with 32% of the placebo group.
about 5% said they’d gotten mental- mental-health system than those outside Multiple startups—including
health care for the first time during the it. On the opposite U.S. coast, telehealth Canada-based Cybin and U.K.-
COVID-19 crisis. That suggests the ex- allowed McLean Hospital, a psychiatric based Compass Pathways—are
pansion of telehealth didn’t bring in an in- institution near Boston, to increase out- working to commercialize the
flux of new patients to the mental-health patient volume by about 15%, counting use of psychoactives for thera-
system. Government data show a similar both new and existing patients, but psy- peutic purposes.
picture: about a quarter of U.S. adults re- chiatrist-in-chief Dr. Scott Rauch says
ceived mental-health care in the winter there’s “absolutely the recognition that
of 2021, according to the U.S. Centers for there are some populations,” like certain
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), older adults, “that are having difficulty
up from about 19% in 2019. That’s an im- accessing the technology.”
provement, but not an enormous one. In fact, despite the increased avail-
Similarly, a March 2021 study from ability of telehealth, the share of Ameri-
California’s Kaiser Permanente health can adults with an unmet mental-health
system found that telehealth allowed cli- need increased from August 2020 to
nicians to conduct 7% more psychiatric February 2021, from 9% to almost
visits in spring 2020 than 2019—but most 12%, according to CDC data. That’s

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