Psychedelics for Medicinal Use: How Will This Alter the Collective Laboratory Consciousness?

Abstract

The clinical evaluation of hallucinogens and other small molecules, conventionally termed psychedelics, has seen a dramatic increase in the past 5 years. Several key clinical trials recently demonstrated the potential efficacy of these compounds in treating a variety of mental health conditions including depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders. Concurrently, the business and patent landscape of hallucinogen derivatives from both conventional drug companies and emerging commercial entities is rapidly expanding. These 2 developments will require the clinical laboratory to rethink its approach to supporting this evolving area beyond the historic detection of these drugs in an abuse and/or overdose setting. For this Q&A, we invited a group of experts who are associated with psychedelic research, drug discovery, or drug approval to provide insight into this rapidly expanding field. The experts discuss what challenges are ahead for clinical adoption of psychedelic compounds and how this may impact the field of laboratory medicine. The opinions provided are those of the expert authors only and do not reflect opinions or outlooks for their respective institutions.