Federal leaders call for national standards to safely integrate psychedelic-assisted therapies into U.S. health care

Jack Bergman and Lou Correa argue that the United States needs a national framework for safely and equitably integrating psychedelic-assisted therapies into medical care. Citing the mental health crisis and the needs of veterans and other patients with treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, substance use disorders, and generalized anxiety disorder, they support accelerating legitimate research while establishing strong safeguards. Their proposed federal policies include nationwide standards for service delivery, practitioner credentialing, labeling, set and setting, crisis response, and pre- and post-session integration support. The authors say FDA Breakthrough Therapy designations for psilocybin and MDMA make preparation urgent, while acknowledging that psychedelics are not universal cures and require structured, ethical, and clinically supervised settings.