Could Psychedelics Help Treat Chronic Pain?

/ Thomas Cohn, MD

PsychedelicsA new study published in the European Journal of Pain found that both macro- and microdoses of classic psychedelics like LSD, DMT, mescaline and psilocybin could help provide better chronic pain relief than some conventional treatments.

For the study, researchers focused on how psychedelics could help treat symptoms associated with five major chronic pain conditions:

  • Fibromyalgia
  • Arthritis
  • Migraines
  • Tension headaches
  • Sciatica

170 participants who met a select criteria were chosen for the study and divided into groups based on their underlying pain issue. From there, participants were given different psychedelics and varying dosages to see how their pain and their mood was impacted after taking the drug.

Psychedelic Pain Study

Expect for sciatica, volunteers reported that psychedelics led to better pain relief than conventional pain medication for all examined conditions both on dosage day as well as 1-3 days afterwards. When looking more closely at the data, researchers found that full doses of psychedelics performed better than conventional medications for the aforementioned conditions, while microdoses led to significantly better pain relief than conventional medications for migraines and offered comparable relief for fibromyalgia, arthritis and tension headaches. Psilocybin and LSD were the most common drugs administered across the 170 patients.

“The present study suggests that psychedelics may hold value in the treatment of certain CP conditions,” researchers wrote. “More specifically, participants reported that full doses seem to achieve better perceived results in pain relief than microdosing while microdosing’s effectiveness seems comparable to that of conventional medication according to survey participants. Future research should focus on building clinical studies that would allow for controlling doses, dosing schedules and the monitoring of both biological and psychological measures to paint a clearer picture of the causal mechanisms that may lead to analgesic effects.”

Obviously a wide variety of pain conditions, psychedelics and dosages were used on a relatively small sample size, and researchers even acknowledged that future studies with more controlled variables are needed to really parse out what drugs could be most effective for different conditions. That said, we’re always optimistic when researchers are looking for new ways to tackle the ever-present problem of chronic pain, so we hope that future researchers can secure funds to further this research. While psychedelics may not be a viable treatment option at the moment, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that it may be an effective option for numerous patients down the road. We’ll keep our eyes on any future studies that attempt to improve on this knowledge.

For now, if you’re looking for a more standard and effective way to treat your chronic pain condition, reach out to Dr. Cohn and his team today at (952) 738-4580.