Best Of: Dr. Bree Johnston on Psilocybin Trips and the Growing Acceptance of Psychedelic Therapy - a podcast by Debbie Weil

from 2023-12-13T12:48:19.359135

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Debbie talks with Dr. Bree Johnston, a geriatrician and palliative care physician in practice for 35 years who is also certified in psychedelic therapies. This is a re-airing of an episode published one year ago.

The topic of psychedelic therapy has gone mainstream in the past several years and especially in the past year. In the year since Debbie and Dr. Bree spoke, the use of psilocybin, MDMA and other psychedelics as therapy for addiction, depression and to ease fear of death has been increasingly in the news. The use of psilocybin is now legal or decriminalized in a handful of states in addition to Oregon.

Dr. Bree is an especially clear speaker and talks openly about the benefits of her own psilocybin trips. She tells us she wishes she could prescribe them for her elderly patients who are anxious about dying.

She explains everything you might want to know about different psychedelics, what their effects are, what to be wary of and more.

As to how this topic fits into aging and reinvention, Debbie says were she to receive a fatal diagnosis from cancer or another disease, she's pretty sure she would seek a guided psilocybin trip to ease fear of dying.

UPDATE on legal status of psychedelics

As Evidence For Treatment Potential Grows, So Has Psychedelic Legality (VeryWellMind.com, Nov. 18, 2022)
Where are psychedelics legal in the U.S.? (Hearst Newspaper Blogger Network, Nov. 25, 2022)
U.S. could soon approve MDMA therapy, opening an era of psychedelic medicine (Nature, April 19, 2023)

RECENTLY IN THE NEWS:

A Psychedelic Pioneer (Dr. Roland Griffiths) Takes the Ultimate Trip by David Marchese ((The New York Times, April 7, 2023).

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COMPLETE SHOW NOTES:

Complete show notes with more resources and links from the May 2022 airing of this episode are here.

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