Can we re-medicalise the psychedelic experience? with Guy Goodwin (Borealis 2025)

Psychedelic medicine requires rigorous regulatory pathways to ensure substances are effectively used in clinical settings. Guy Goodwin outlines the challenges of drug approval, specifically addressing concerns about placebo responses, unblinding in trials, and the role of psychotherapy. Through data on psilocybin and 5-MeO-DMT, the potential of dose-response studies to demonstrate efficacy while mitigating placebo effects is highlighted. These approaches aim to prove the biological activity of psychedelic compounds, distancing their benefits from purely psychological or setting-based expectations. Maintaining high fidelity in therapy delivery and measuring treatment response are central to these regulatory strategies. Ultimately, empirical data on connection changes in the brain supports the pharmacological validity of these substances, providing a robust case for their development as therapeutic agents.