Psychedelics Meet Up With Virtual Reality at South by Southwest
... The conference’s SXSW Interactive program has become a mecca for cannabis and psychedelics advocates in recent years, giving them an opportunity to reach a wider audience despite federal prohibitions on drugs and an inability to market any legal products. ...
“VR technologies are going to be a powerful adjunct to support psychedelic therapy,” said Walter Greenleaf, a neuroscientist and medical technology developer at Stanford University. “And it’s emerging pretty fast.” ...
The psychedelics industry is advancing on two parallel tracks. On one, companies test drugs such as psilocybin, MDMA, LSD and ayahuasca in clinical trials, seeking regulatory approval to sell them for ailments including depression, PTSD and anxiety. On the other path, places such as Oregon, Seattle and Colorado are decriminalizing or legalizing use — and in some cases creating standards for therapists to oversee hallucinogenic trips.
Both tracks have sparked questions about how to optimize the malleable brain state the drugs create while avoiding risks of improper influence (think brainwashing on steroids) or psychosis (when the patient loses long-term touch with reality). One solution that’s been proposed is talk therapy to “integrate” a hallucinogenic experience; but there are concerns that this could be cost-prohibitive. ...
Some academics and entrepreneurs are pitching VR as a solution. ...
See the full story here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-03-13/drugs-and-virtual-reality-mix-in-sxsw-panel
