CLEVELAND (WJW) –  A Cleveland Clinic/Case Western Reserve University survey of psychiatrists shows a remarkable change in how psychiatrists see the medical use of psychedelics as a tool for treatment.

in 2016, only about 43% of doctors agreed that psychedelics such as LSD, Psilocybin which is the hallucinogenic ingredient in magic mushrooms and other similar drugs could help with psychiatric disorders.

But just seven years later, more than 80% of those surveyed feel that the medical use of these drugs could help.

So, what changed?

“What’s happening now both here at the Cleveland Clinic and at other institutions, we are diving back into that research and finding very promising results and hopeful this will lead to a new paradigm of psychiatric treatment within the next few years,” said Dr. Brian Barnett with the Cleveland Clinic’s Treatment Resistant Depression Clinic.

Dr. Barnett says more research has been done into the use of psychedelics

He says in the 1950’s and 60’s, research into this type of treatment showed promise but was stopped because of the fear of misuse.

But now doctors worldwide have resumed it and shown even better results to help people with depression, anxiety and substance abuse, PTSD and other mental health issues because it helps open the mind.

“We do know that people develop powerful insights under them, and they and they might see a connection to something that happened in their life and their psychiatric condition or their substance use disorder and that can be pivotal for them to change the direction of how their going to deal with it.” Dr. Barnett said.

Dr. Barnett says the use of the medications right now is tightly controlled and will always be.

Patients are in a special dosing room and are monitored by two physicians for eight to 12 hours.

How close are psychedelics to becoming a regular part of certain therapies? Dr. Barnett says there are several companies right now seeking FDA approval to expand controlled clinical trials of certain psychedelics to be used for therapy.

If early indications are correct, the use of psychedelics could change help psychotherapy in the future.

“We asked psychiatrists how likely they were to incorporate psychedelics into their practice, and more than half of psychiatrists said they are ready to do that if regulatory approval is granted by the FDA” Dr. Barnett said.

Dr. Barnett says the FDA is right now reviewing the final trials of a therapeutic treatment created by a private company.

They could grant approval in coming months.