Trippin’ Forward: Management Research and the Development of Psychedelics
In this article, Charlie Smith reflects on his interest in psychedelic research, the topic of his research article, “Psychedelics, Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy and Employees’ Wellbeing,“ published in Journal of Management Inquiry.
There is a psychedelic renaissance happening with key compounds that alter perception and mood, including classic drugs like lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin, methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and dimethyltryptamine (DMT), being developed as potential mental health treatments by over 100 listed companies globally. Whilst psychedelics have been prohibited in many countries since the 1960s (Hall, 2022), the regulatory landscape is rapidly evolving, with the United States leading the way for approving these drugs for medicalization (e.g., Oregon legalized supervised psilocybin in 2020).
I have been interested in psychedelic research since 2019, often termed a “watershed” year in the field (Aday et al., 2020). Before this, I had researched mental health and well-being for a decade, and I became intrigued by the possibility of new mental health treatments emerging. This, I felt, was especially important given the current volatility of the world amidst a global mental health crisis, and wherein there have been few new therapies for common conditions (e.g., depression, anxiety) in the last 30 years. I was also acutely aware of the importance, value and routine of work for helping individuals overcome mental health conditions.
Despite the benefits of work and the emergent promise of psychedelics for treating mental health conditions (e.g., Calder and Hasler, 2023; Goodwin et al., 2022; King and Hammond, 2021; Mitchell et al., 2023), the workplace, however, often remains a sanitized space and not one usually associated with Schedule I drugs, such as psychedelics carrying harmful potential. My greatest challenge came in writing about these often disparate elements combined in a convincing way to the editor and reviewers. Overcoming this challenge ultimately led to my work’s contribution and innovative aspects, which lie in exploring how management research could advance the development of psychedelics and influence the future of working lives.
Being an agenda-setting piece in the Generative Curiosity section of the Journal of Management Inquiry, it had to be short, and I had many hard choices of what to include. I would have loved to have written more about the role of psychedelics in enhancing creativity (e.g., Gandy et al., 2022), motivation and performance, especially in work settings requiring substantive endurance. Ultimately, I decided that the clinical evidence on these parts is not as advanced as that which focuses on mental health conditions per se and that in the current socio-economic climate, focusing on mental health more broadly will have more impact for the greater good.
There is a vast amount of cross-disciplinary research that needs to be undertaken within and around psychedelics (e.g., Bartlett et al., 2023). My advice to incoming researchers would be to treat the nascent science of psychedelics’ benefits openly and cautiously as methodological concerns are materializing (Ona et al., 2022). Much promise is emerging from these treatments, but there is also considerable hype (Yaden et al., 2022). I would also recommend developing interdisciplinary collaborations as these will prove critical as the clinical evidence on psychedelics advances, and the need to understand and interpret these results in social contexts continues to rise.
