Psychedelic drugs — can they heal the mind?

Depression, PTSD, anxiety, addiction. Mental disorders intervene in some of the most fundamental things about being human; our experience of ourselves, our relationship with others, and our way of being in the world. In recent years, psychedelic drugs have again come into the spotlight of scientists. For can MDMA, LSD, ayahuasca and psilocybin help with serious mental disorders?

In more and more countries — including Switzerland, Canada, Germany, the Czech Republic and Australia, and in several U.S. states, psychedelic therapy has been authorized for depression and PTSD, among other things. And in Denmark, an undergrowth of therapists offering this kind of treatment is emerging -- even though it's not legal.

But what do psychedelics do to us? What happens in the brain when we ingest them — and why can a single trip sometimes produce long-lasting changes? What do we really know about side effects and risk of addiction? And perhaps most interestingly -- can a psychedelic experience change our view of ourselves, of other people, and of the world?

This is explored this evening when Dr David Erritzøe, PhD and Head of the Centre for Interventional Psychiatry and Psychedelic Research in London, talks about the latest research into treatment with psychedelics — and what they can tell us about human consciousness.

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