The Use of Psychedelics in the Treatment of Medical Conditions: An Analysis of Currently Registered Psychedelics Studies in the American Drug Trial Registry

Abstract

Although early therapeutic research on psychedelics dates back to the 1940s, this field of investigation was met with many cultural and legal challenges in the 1970s. Over the past two decades, clinical trials using psychedelics have resumed. Therefore, the goal of this study was to (1) better characterize the recent uptrend in psychedelics in clinical trials and (2) identify areas where potentially new clinical trials could be initiated to help in the treatment of widely prevalent medical disorders. A systematic search was conducted on the clinicaltrials.gov database for all registered clinical trials examining the use of psychedelic drugs and was both qualitatively and quantitatively assessed. Analysis of recent studies registered in clinicaltrials.gov was performed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient testing. Statistical analysis and visualization were performed using R software. In totality, 105 clinical trials met this study’s inclusion criteria. The recent uptrend in registered clinical trials studying psychedelics (p = 0.002) was similar to the uptrend in total registered clinical trials in the registry (p < 0.001). All trials took place from 2007 to 2020, with 77.1% of studies starting in 2017 or later. A majority of clinical trials were in phase 1 (53.3%) or phase 2 (25.7%). Common disorders treated include substance addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder, and major depressive disorder. Potential research gaps include studying psychedelics as a potential option for symptomatic treatment during opioid tapering. There appears to be a recent uptrend in registered clinical trials studying psychedelics, which is similar to the recent increase in overall trials registered. Potentially, more studies could be performed to evaluate the potential of psychedelics for symptomatic treatment during opioid tapering and depression refractory to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.