Special Issue of Pharmacopsychiatry on Psychedelics in Psychiatry 2021 – Gerhard Gründer and Henrik Jungaberle on the difference of disruptive treatments

A special issue of Pharmacopsychiatry

„Psychedelics in Psychiatry 2021“

The July 2021 special issue of Psychopharmacology is dedicated to the renaissance of psychedelics in psychiatry that has occurred during the past couple of years. “Psychedelics in Psychiatry 2021” contains four interesting review articles on different aspects of its historic development and current research as treatment in mood disorders and its effects in psychotherapy.
Together with Gerhard Gründer Henrik Jungaberle has co-authored a paper on “The potential role of psychedelic drugs in mental health care of the future”.

Prof. Dr. Gerhard Gründer describes the scope of the special issue in his editoral:

“It is important to be aware of the historical roots of our current medical practices. This is particularly true of the use of psychedelics for medical purposes. Nichols and Walter in their thoughtful review provide an overview of the historical basis on which all current psychedelic treatment research is based [5]. Treatment with a psychedelic is not just the application of a pill. Rather, it must always be embedded in psychotherapeutic support. The scope and nature of this psychotherapeutic program are the subjects of intense research, the current status of which is presented in the overview by Nayak and Johnson [6]. What is the mechanism of action of psychedelics? The entire spectrum of psychological and biological processes that are triggered by psychedelics is the subject of the review by Mertens and Preller [7]. They discuss the current state of research using the example of 2 possible future therapeutic indications, affective and substance use disorders. Finally, psychedelic therapy not only requires a new infrastructure in which it is carried out but also must be integrated into the existing system and differentiated from the recreational use of these substances. Many social, political, and cultural questions are affected by this enculturation. The challenges of how psychedelics could be implemented in a future mental health care system are discussed by Gründer and Jungaberle [8].”