What Does Clinical Ethics Have to Say to Newly-Legalized Psilocybin Therapy?
Thursday, October 12, 2023
8:15 AM – 9:30 AM ET
Location: Chasseur (Third Floor)
Psilocybin-assisted therapy, in which patients facing difficulties including substance use disorder and depression ingest psilocybin in a controlled environment guided by a therapist, has been the subject of high-profile promising studies, and will soon be legal in a number of states, including where the authors practice as clinical ethicists.
As the use of psilocybin was until recently legally grey and has not yet been entirely embraced by major organizations, and discussions of credentialing for practitioners have not yet been settled, there are few ethical guides for psilocybin-assisted therapy practitioners. As psilocybin therapy rapidly develops as a practice, we are at a crucial time in which standards and supports must be established. Notable proposals for credentialing of psilocybin-assisted therapy practitioners include broad ethical competencies and the note that practitioners should abide by the ethical guidelines for their professions, but this does not yet represent the robust guidelines and support we suggest. Ethical standards and supports are important to protect patients and guide practice, and this has largely been the focus of discussion of ethics and psilocybin therapy. However, we argue, these standards and institutions can also protect practitioners themselves. We offer case studies which highlights what institutional ethical supports (in the form of strong and specific professionalism standards, clinical ethics, or others) can offer practitioners operating alongside or parallel to existing medical/professional structures. Guided by these experiences, we hope to begin a conversation on how best to develop ethical structures to keep up with rapid already-ongoing development of psilocybin-assisted therapy itself.
Kayla Tabari House, RN, MBE, HEC-C – Providence Center for Health Care Ethics – Providence Health and Services