A historical and ethnopharmacological review of classic psychedelics, from the 1950s to the present, including their ancestral uses, highlights political and cultural controversies in Psychiatry. The authors argue that psychopharmacological progress over the last thirty years has not met expectations, and that regulatory policies in Argentina must change to allow clinical research into serotonergic psychedelics. The goal is to promote a stigma-free approach to these substances' therapeutic potential, aiming to provide relief for severe mental illnesses that remain inadequately treated.
This narrative review synthesizes recent literature on the non-pharmacological factors—set (person) and setting (environment)—that shape the subjective and therapeutic effects of psychedelic-assisted therapy with substances such as psilocybin and MDMA. Findings are organized into three levels: pre-session therapeutic preparation, the session environment, and post-session integration. The review concludes that these extra-pharmacological variables are essential for maximizing therapeutic potential and proposes a comprehensive model for clinical and research application.