Mind Medicine Australia: Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy for eating disorders

I had the pleasure of presenting at a virtual seminar for Mind Medicine Australia and got to share a bit about how psychedelic-assisted psychotherapies are helping treat eating disorders. When you look at the statistics—the prevalence rates of eating disorders are staggering. About 1 in 10 American women will suffer from one before the age of 40. And the sad thing is that eating disorders are often extremely difficult to treat. Conventional treatments don’t always work and there are limited medication options (for example, anorexia nervosa has no FDA-approved medications—NONE!).

Fortunately, research is showing that psychedelics have a unique way of addressing the underlying causes of these complex and deeply rooted illnesses. During my presentation I go into the details of how psychedelics mechanistically alleviate symptoms of eating disorders and highlight some of the most recent data and clinical trials to-date on the topic. Numerous groups out there are exploring the potential of psychedelic-assisted therapies (using MDMA, ayahuasca, ketamine, ayahuasca and other medicines) as an invention for eating disorders.

Feel free to watch the whole talk if you’re interested. See the video below!