The world is facing a mental health crisis — and this shows up in the workplace. Poor work environments can have a serious effect on one’s mental health. In addition, 15% of working-age adults were estimated to battle a mental disorder in 2019, according to the World Health Organization.
Making matters worse is that traditional treatments are falling short. That’s why there are efforts to expand access to psychedelic-assisted therapy. During a Thursday panel discussion at the Behavioral Health Tech conference in Phoenix, four experts discussed the benefits that psychedelic medicines could have on mental health in the workplace.
Here are four things to know from their conversation:
1. Employers have an important role in supporting employees’ mental health
According to one HR expert on the panel, 77% of workers report that workplace stress affects their physical health, and 43% say that their manager has a negative impact on them. In addition, 60 million workers in the U.S. report being on the receiving end of bullying.
“[Employers] absolutely play a role in this. … We’re all different. What it took for you to step into this room or to get in your car and step outside of your house, it could be different, and the requirements for all of us are very different. I think it’s going to require some unique ways of thinking about healthcare and how we support employees and how we take care of each other. That’s why I’m so passionate about psychedelics,” said Erica Scott, director of people and organizational culture at Grand Canyon Trust.
She noted that when employees don’t feel supported at work, it creates costly challenges for employers like absenteeism and high turnover, as well as a toxic work environment.
2. There is great promise with ketamine
Despite the fact that ketamine-assisted therapy is legal across the U.S., there is still a lot of stigma associated with it, according to Dana Lerman, co-founder and medical director of Skylight Psychedelics. She mentioned Matthew Perry, an actor who recently died from the effects of ketamine.
“Matthew Perry had a drug addiction and was doing ketamine in a hot tub, and also he was buying ketamine from bad doctors, and his assistant was injecting him with ketamine,” Lerman said. “No one that is a proponent of these medicines thinks that that is a good idea. Just like anything, you need guidance and guardrails and help.”
Skylight Psychedelics, meanwhile, prescribes ketamine, but only to be used in licensed and trained therapist offices. It also provides training for therapists.
Lerman noted that ketamine and psychedelics are completely different from the traditional Western medicine approach.
“Our traditional Western medicine approach is to take a pill and feel better. Increase your serotonin and just feel better,” she said. “This is completely different. Instead of taking that pile of stuff that you have and sweeping it under a rug, we lift up the rug and we take the pile out and we look through it, and we move through it. In psychedelics, we say, ‘The only way out is through.’ … These medicines allow you to work with what happened to you, allow you to remember what happened to you, and to forgive people, and to move through it.”
She added that ketamine has been used for decades and is an “incredibly safe medicine” that is used in many different fields, including for children, burn units and anesthesia. Lerman also shared the story of her best friend, a radiation oncologist who spent the majority of his life struggling with mental health challenges.
“He became suicidal, and he tried every SSRI, max dose, multiple meds, all the things,” she said. “He had chronic low back pain, major depression, anxiety, and he developed suicidality. We got him off of all of those medicines that he was on. We treated him with ketamine. And he wrote me a suicide note. After his fourth dose of ketamine, he has never had suicidal ideation again, and that was over three years ago.”
3. There is also great promise with psilocybin
Another psychedelic that is showing great potential in mental health is psilocybin, or mushrooms, which is legal in Oregon and soon Colorado. But it’s not a treatment meant for everyone, according to Kat Thompson, founder and CEO of Fractal Health & Fractal Soul, a licensed psilocybin service center in Portland, Oregon. Instead, psilocybin is meant to be an interventional medicine, though there are some cases where day-to-day microdosing is helpful, she said.
“When we’re talking about full doses, therapeutic doses, they’re going to put people into an altered, expanded state of consciousness,” Thompson said. “This isn’t something we want people to be doing all the time. I tell my clients all the time, ‘I don’t ever want to see you again.’ I want you to come in and have one session and whatever your core intention was is resolved. If you want to come back and do what some of my clients call a tune-up or a maintenance session a year from now, that’s great. But a lot of our clients who come in and return don’t do it because they need to. They do it because they want to.”
She noted that she uses the phrase “core intention” because in Oregon, a diagnosis is not required. People can use psilocybin for a variety of reasons beyond treating conditions like depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder. For example, some may seek it out to help deal with divorce or getting laid off from work.
That said, making an appointment for psilocybin isn’t like making an appointment for a massage, Thompson noted. Before patients have their session, they’re screened, matched with the right facilitator and go through preparation.
“By the time you show up at my clinic the day of your session, you are ready, and you’re not feeling fear and you’re feeling confident,” she said. “You know what to expect. You might have some nerves, but you’re ready. And when people show up and they’re ready, then they leave out my door walking differently, talking differently. They’re like different people because they’ve done that work. With psilocybin specifically, it’s just an effective interventional medicine when other things haven’t worked.”
4. Employers can offer these treatments as a workplace benefit
While psychedelics can be effective in treating mental health, accessing them is challenging. That’s what Enthea is trying to solve. It works with employers to offer psychedelic healthcare as a workplace benefit and provides access to a network of providers in this space, according to Sherry Rais, CEO and co-founder of the company.
There are many reasons why offering psychedelic treatments as a workplace benefit is beneficial for employers, Rais argued.
“Untreated mental health costs U.S. employers $3.7 trillion a year,” she said. “Forty-two percent of missed work days are due to mental health. We don’t always tell our boss I’m having a mental health day, but often that is the reason we call in sick. The number one reason for disability claims … is mental health. The number one [reason] Gen Zers and millennials left their job last year was due to mental health. This is an issue we really do need to address. If we start addressing it properly [and] employers here start leading by example, the rest of the world might follow suit.”
Photo: SIphotography, Getty Images
