Exeter University has announced at Breaking Convention that they will launch a new postgraduate course that will focus on psychedelics in therapeutic work for healthcare workers.
The course will focus on such psychedelics as psilocybin, MDMA and LSD. It is hoped that through the course and the backing of Exeter University it will cement psychedelics as scientifically important. This in turn could lead to therapeutic treatments involving psychedelics becoming common place within five years within the UK.
Australia has already announced that they will be legalising both MDMA and psilocybin for medicinal use, although there is concern over the cost of such treatment. Some estimate that it may be priced at $25,000 per patient.
In the U.S. Massachusetts is aiming to allow patients access to MDMA therapy with a cost cap of $5,000 and Oregon has recently legalised psilocybin with the first licences issued for producers.
The course will cover a variety of topics all relating to psychedelics. These will include current psychedelic therapies, psychiatry and neuroscience, anthropology, philosophy – with a focus on insights into consciousness and metaphysics via psychedelics as well as discussions of decolonising psychedelic research.
Celia Morgan, a professor of psychopharmacology at the Exeter University, said: “As the world wakes up to the potential for psychedelics to be an important part of the toolkit to treat some of our most damaging mental health conditions, it’s vital that we’re training the workforce to meet the demand.”
“The global body of high-quality evidence is now irrefutable – psychedelics can work where other treatments have failed.”
“I think this shows how far we have come from the fear and stigma that dogged this field for years, a change which we also see reflected in leading universities around the world conducting gold-standard clinical trials.”
The announcement was made at Breaking Convention 2023 which took place on the campus of Exeter University.
