Psychedelics are booming in the medical world. In the United States, psychedelic psychotherapy is on the verge of widespread clinical approval. That is, of course, good news, but it also means there is an increasingly urgent need to understand which patients are best suited for treatments with psychedelic substances, and which groups of patients are actually at the greatest risk.
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Extremely varied effects
HaluGen, a Vancouver-based company, agreed and has launched a genetic test that screens for genetic variants that may influence how a person responds to certain psychedelic medications. That sounds promising, but some researchers are skeptical because there is little actual evidence that genetic screening can predict how a person will react to psychedelics.
The main problem with using psychedelics lies in the highly varied effects they can have. If you’re a regular Dutch-Smart visitor and have tried psychedelics yourself, there’s a good chance that you and your friends will each react completely differently to the same substances. That makes using them tricky. Because while most medications have a consistent effect, people under the influence of psychedelics can have extremely diverse effects and experiences.
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Necessary research
This is precisely why research into suitable patient groups for potential therapies using psychedelics is necessary. A 1958 WHO report already described how unique hallucinogens are in the way external factors so fundamentally influence their effects. “Perhaps their most striking feature is the fluctuating course of their effects, and the striking dependence of these effects on the precise constellation of environmental factors,” the report states. Yet HaluGen claims to have found a solution to this.
“HaluGen’s psychedelic pre-screening platform offers a comprehensive solution to identify interindividual variations in the effects of psychedelic medications, highlight short- and long-term genetic risk profiles, and categorize personal and familial risks,” the company states. "By combining a simple, non-invasive DNA sample from cheek swabs with extensive pre- and post-psychedelic use questionnaires, HaluGen offers a simple and effective method for users, researchers, and clinicians to gain deeper insight into their psychedelic experience."
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Why set and setting are so important
Contemporary psychonauts are most familiar with these “environmental factors” as “set and setting,” a phenomenon we regularly write about here on Dutch-Smart. Set and setting are, in fact, of great importance for ensuring a psychedelic trip goes smoothly. “Set” refers to the personality, preparation, expectations, and intentions of the person having the experience, while “setting” refers to the physical, social, and cultural environment in which the experience takes place.
In very concrete terms, these set and setting can mean the difference between a pleasant, life-changing trip and a hellish bad trip. More and more researchers are studying these different types of trips and how we can combine the best effects of both experiences for the best possible potential use in the future. But are there really factors that can determine which individuals are or are not suitable for future psychedelic therapies?
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‘No ability to predict this’
Well… it seems we can’t do that yet. Recently, in a 60 Minutes interview about the modern resurgence of psychedelic science, researcher Roland Griffiths was asked if there is a way to predict which patients will have good or bad experiences with psychedelic substances. His answer was resolute: “Our ability to predict this is almost nil.” Clear language.
Still, this doesn’t mean that better predictions or measurements can’t be made in the future. Especially given the speed at which psychedelic science is being revived in the scientific and medical communities, it seems likely that we’ll see quite a few groundbreaking studies in the years to come.
