Artificial intelligence and psychedelic medicine

Artificial intelligence and psychedelic medicines, two prominent disruptive innovations in mental healthcare, have potential to combine for novel treatments. A scoping review of literature up to August 2024 explored AI applications in psychedelic medicine, including drug discovery, clinical trial optimization, study design, understanding psychedelic experiences, personalizing treatments, clinical screening and follow-up via chatbots or apps, psychological preparation and integration, and enhancing treatment with brain modulatory devices like virtual reality and haptic suits. Challenges include data protection and ethical safeguards. Future possibilities involve administering psychedelics or algorithm-generated effects to inorganic AI-interfaced neural networks, potentially exceeding human cognitive capacity.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) and psychedelic medicines are among the most high-profile evolving disruptive innovations within mental healthcare in recent years. Although AI and psychedelics may not have historically shared any common ground, there exists the potential for these subjects to combine in generating innovative mental health treatment approaches. In order to inform our perspective, we conducted a scoping review of relevant literature up to late August 2024 via PubMed intersecting AI with psychomedical use of psychedelics. Our perspective covers the potential application of AI in psychedelic medicine for: drug discovery and clinical trial optimization (including pharmacodynamics); study design; understanding psychedelic experiences; personalization of treatments; clinical screening, delivery, and follow-up (potentially delivered via chatbots/apps); application of psychological preparation, integration, and general mental health support; its role in enhancing treatment via brain modulatory devices (including virtual reality and haptic suits); and the consideration of ethical and security safeguards. Challenges include the need for sufficient data protection and security, and a range of necessary ethical protections. Future avenues of exploration could involve directly administering psychedelics (or providing algorithm-generated effects) to inorganic AI-interfaced neural networks that may exceed human brain activity (i.e., cognitive capacity) and intelligence.