"We think that this should mean holding psychedelic therapy to the same standard as all other forms of mental healthcare." The problem is these substances are nothing like other forms of mental healthcare. Attempting to force them into the same box will only confound and confuse the process even more.
You raise a good point here that's worth us clarifying. By this we mean same high standards of care, but not necessarily derived from the exact same methodologies used for other forms—forcing them into the same box as you say.
For example in this post (https://thepsilocybinmushroombible.substack.com/p/sunshine-acid-shrooms-and-sugar-pillsplacebo) we briefly explored how mental health therapy more broadly doesn't lend itself to the randomised controlled trial methodology used as the gold standard of drug development. We have frameworks to assess things like counselling and psychotherapy, that are completely different to those used in pharmaceutical drug development. The difference with psychedelic therapy is we're building these frameworks now, in real time.
Our main point is that we need to envisage how to hold psychedelic therapy to a high standard like all other treatments. Lowering the burden of proof, however we chose to assess that, will never be in patients' best interests. However the latter is a real risk if left in the hands of people willing to put their own opinion ahead of the evidence.
"We think that this should mean holding psychedelic therapy to the same standard as all other forms of mental healthcare." The problem is these substances are nothing like other forms of mental healthcare. Attempting to force them into the same box will only confound and confuse the process even more.
You raise a good point here that's worth us clarifying. By this we mean same high standards of care, but not necessarily derived from the exact same methodologies used for other forms—forcing them into the same box as you say.
For example in this post (https://thepsilocybinmushroombible.substack.com/p/sunshine-acid-shrooms-and-sugar-pillsplacebo) we briefly explored how mental health therapy more broadly doesn't lend itself to the randomised controlled trial methodology used as the gold standard of drug development. We have frameworks to assess things like counselling and psychotherapy, that are completely different to those used in pharmaceutical drug development. The difference with psychedelic therapy is we're building these frameworks now, in real time.
Our main point is that we need to envisage how to hold psychedelic therapy to a high standard like all other treatments. Lowering the burden of proof, however we chose to assess that, will never be in patients' best interests. However the latter is a real risk if left in the hands of people willing to put their own opinion ahead of the evidence.