A new study has established that a single positive psychedelic drug experience could help minimize stress, anxiety, and depression symptoms in indigenous, Black, and people of color that have experienced harmful forms of racism.
Psychedelics can alleviate trauma due to racism
The retrospective study participants indicated that after 30 days of experience with LSD, MDMA, or psilocybin they experienced alleviated trauma-related symptoms connected to racist acts. The study’s co-lead author, Alan Davis said that the psychedelic drug experience was very strong that the subjects could recall and reported changes in racial trauma symptoms that had experienced in their lives. Davis said that the subjects remember having a considerable reduction in their mental health challenges after the use of psychedelic drugs.
Interestingly the study demonstrated that the more insightful and intensely spiritual the psychedelic experience the more significant the decline in trauma-related symptoms. There is growing research regarding the place of psychedelics in therapy in a controlled setting. Davis noted that previous studies lacked a focus on people of color and on therapy that could address trauma due to exposure to racism.
Davis’ co-lead author Monica Williams who is a Research Chair in Mental Health Disparities at the University of Ottawa stated that currently there are no empirically supported racial trauma treatments. She added that the study has demonstrated that psychedelic cold is an important way of healing people dealing with trauma. They published the study in the online journal Drugs: Education, Prevention, and Policy.
The study enrolled 313 participants
The study recruited 313 participants in Canada and the US employing Qulatrics survey research panels. The participants had reportedly had a psychedelic drug dose in the past that helped relieve the traumatic effects of racial discrimination. The study sample comprised of adults who identified as Hispanic, Asian, Black, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and Native American/Indigenous Canadian. The discrimination they had experienced includes unfair treatment by teachers, bosses, and neighbors, physical violence, and false accusations. Reported issues included a feeling of anger and wanting to tell someone off because of racism.
