Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy for Social Adaptability in Autistic Adults

Autistic self-advocates are using the Internet to influence the conversation about neurodiversity and the potential benefits of psychedelic medicine for autistic adults, given the lack of effective mental health treatment options. Autism is a genetically-determined neurocognitive variant, so psychedelics cannot cure or alter its course. However, autism frequently co-occurs with conditions like anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and trauma, which are being studied as indications for psychedelic clinical trials. This chapter informs researchers and clinicians about the history of clinical research with classic psychedelics in autistic minors, recent trials of atypical psychedelics in autistic adults, and considerations for providing autism-compatible psychedelic-assisted psychotherapies.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Access to the Internet has upended long-standing myths and misconceptions about autism as autistic individuals are enabled through technology increasingly to influence the dialog around neurodiversity, the experience of being autistic, and the effectiveness of mental health interventions for autistic adults. Autistic self-advocates are speaking up in support of including neurodivergent adults as a population that might benefit from the burgeoning psychedelic medicine field, in an absence of many other mental health treatment options that have been researched and shown to be effective for them. Autism is a genetically-determined neurocognitive variant with considerable heterogeneity across the broad autistic phenotype spectrum. Therefore, enthusiasm for investigating psychedelics to cure or alter the course of autism is most likely ill-informed and misdirected; psychiatric and psychopharmacological interventions do not alter the genome. However, autism frequently co-occurs with clinical conditions such as anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and trauma that have been investigated as indications for clinical trials with classic and atypical psychedelics. The purpose of this chapter will be to inform researchers and clinicians on the history of clinical research with classic psychedelics with autistic minors, recent and current clinical trials of atypical psychedelics with autistic adults, and considerations for providing psychedelic-assisted psychotherapies that are compatible with autism.