The Psychedelic Revolution: Can Hallucinogenic Drugs Transform Medicine?
Jacob M. Appel (MD JD MPH HEC-C DFAPA) is currently Professor of Psychiatry and Medical Education at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, where he is Director of Ethics Education in Psychiatry, Assistant Director of the Academy for Medicine and the Humanities, and Medical Director of the Mental Health Clinic at the East Harlem Health Outreach Program. He also teaches graduate students at Albany Medical College’s Alden March Bioethics Institute. Prior to joining the faculty at Mount Sinai, Jacob taught for many years at Brown University and at Yeshiva College, where he was the writer-in-residence. Jacob is the author of five literary novels, ten short story collections, an essay collection, a cozy mystery, a thriller, a volume of poems and a compendium of dilemmas in medical ethics. He is Vice President of the National Book Critics Circle, co-chair of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry’s Committee on Psychiatry & Law, and a Councilor of the New York County Psychiatric Society.
Overview
For Americans who came of age in the 1960s, hallucinogenic drugs like LSD and mescaline are inextricably linked to that decade’s counterculture and guru Timothy Leary’s call to “Turn on, tune in, drop out.” More recently, studies have shown significant efficacy for hallucinogens in treating a range of psychiatric illnesses, including depression, anxiety, and—ironically—substance use disorders. Beyond recreational micro-dosing and Michael Pollan’s “ego dissolution,” psilocybin may prove the source of a revolution in mental health. This lecture explores the history of these mind-altering substances, the evidence for their therapeutic value, and the complex ethical and legal issues that keep them out of reach of most Americans.