The Broadening Exploration of Potential Uses for Psychedelics: Dr. Fred Barrett, Associate Director of The Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research

If psychedelics are eventually authorized by the FDA for use in mental health treatment, much credit will go to The Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research which sparked a renaissance of interest in the compounds starting in 2006 under the guidance of Dr. Roland Griffiths. The first study was actually not about clinical applications of hallucinogens but rather it observed their impact on healthy people. “One of the most remarkable findings Roland Griffiths encountered early on was that people would endorse the statement that they had one of the top five or the single most personally meaningful and spiritually significant experiences of their lives,” says Associate Center Director Dr. Fred Barrett, who met host Shiv Gaglani in his office in Baltimore for this extended conversation. And while the Center is actively researching potential clinical use of psychedelics, which is promising, it remains interested in how they may improve the lives of those not in need of mental health treatment. “What are the opportunities for spiritual growth? What are the opportunities for increasing well-being? There's an opportunity for exploration here that, if we're very careful, may have utility and value outside of the medicalization of these compounds,” adds Barrett. Don’t miss this expansive (dare we say mind-expanding?) discussion of the possible reasons psychedelics may help people with depression, why they are not prone to misuse, and what they tell us about the nature of consciousness itself. 

Mentioned in this episode: https://hopkinspsychedelic.org/

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