COMBINING MINDFULNESS PRACTICE AND PSYCHEDELIC THERAPY
Psychedelic therapy can reduce symptoms, but how can patients keep up these improvements in the long term?
THE MIND IS THE FRIEND
OF THOSE WHO HAVE CONTROL OVER IT,
AND THE MIND ACTS LIKE AN ENEMY
FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT CONTROL IT.
BHAGAVAD GITA, CHAPTER VI, THE YOGA OF MEDITATION.
After being deprived of the scientific community’s attention for decades, psychedelic research is now experiencing a revival. Specifically, there has been an increase in studies on the therapeutic potential of psychedelic substances for treating mental disorders such as depression, addiction, cancer-related psychiatric distress, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
In patients with mental disorders, neuroplasticity – the neural mechanism through which the brain structurally and functionally adapts to changes in a person’s environment – is often impaired. Neuroplasticity is strongly associated with a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is often abnormally low in depressed patients.
Prolonged, repeated mindfulness practice seems to increase levels of BDNF, thus promoting neuroplasticity.
Psychedelics, too, induce transient but powerful “neuroplastic boosts”, dramatically increasing BDNF levels even after a single session.
What can we take from these findings? Mindfulness meditation and psilocybin both act on some of the major psychological and biological factors that contribute to the healing of mental disorders and depression!