Can you use DMT for medical purposes?

Can you use DMT for medical purposes?

Can you use DMT for medical purposes? Right now, everyone’s talking about psychedelics as potential game-changers in the treatment of addiction, depression, anxiety, trauma, and other mental health conditions. DMT, even outside of Ayahuasca therapy, is a growing part of that conversation.

“A lot of depression or anxiety is about feeling disconnected or alone or isolated, or not having a place in the world,” said Davis. “One of the core features [of DMT] is this complete connection to the universe and dissolution of all those thoughts.”

Griffiths has helped lead several studies into the therapeutic action of psychedelics—mostly psilocybin. He said that DMT’s rapid onset and relatively short trip duration make it an attractive candidate from a logistical point of view: A mushroom trip can last eight hours or more, while someone can experience DMT in the space of an hour or 90-minute therapy session. He also said that, like other psychedelics, DMT seems to induce the kind of heightened neuroplasticity and shifts in neuronal functioning that seem to partly underlie these drugs’ benefits. 

But he has reservations. “People are back to normative levels of consciousness within 30 minutes, and the experience is much more discontinuous from normal reality,” he said. “[With DMT], it could be harder to make sense of these experiences and integrate them into normal ways of thinking and being in ways that are helpful.” 

Griffiths said that DMT, like other psychedelics, doesn’t appear to be toxic to the brain or body. But it isn’t without risk. “For one thing, all of these drugs are illegal,” he said.

“The other concern is that these kinds of experiences can be destabilizing to some individuals,” he said. “In our research, we do not administer psilocybin to people with family histories of psychotic illness like schizophrenia because it’s possible that an experience of this sort could push them over into a chronic psychotic disorder.” This is more a precaution than a proven risk—researchers who have looked to see if psychedelics can trigger serious mental health problems have not found evidence of elevated risks. 

When it comes to 5-MeO-DMT taken outside of clinical settings, Davis said the drug is so potent that people who are unsupervised may get into life-threatening trouble. “You could fall forward in a way that your airways become compressed and you suffocate,” he said.