Below are some of the resources that can help you build a solid understanding of the history, practices, and medical research on the benefits of various substances.
"Ibogaine is associated with substantive effects on opioid withdrawal symptoms and drug use in subjects for whom other treatments had been unsuccessful"
Treatment of opioid use disorder with ibogaine: detoxification and drug use outcomes (2018), The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse
"A single ibogaine treatment reduced opioid withdrawal symptoms and achieved opioid cessation or sustained reduced use in dependent individuals as measured over 12 months"
Ibogaine treatment outcomes for opioid dependence from a twelve-month follow-up observational study (2017), The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse
"At 48 hours following ibogaine administration, withdrawal and craving scores were significantly lowered in comparison to baseline: 78% of patients did not exhibit objective clinical signs of opioid withdrawal, 79% reported minimal cravings for opioids, and 68% reported subjective withdrawal symptoms in the mild range. Ibogaine appears to facilitate opioid detoxification by reducing opioid withdrawal and craving in participants with OUD"
Changes in Withdrawal and Craving Scores in Participants Undergoing Opioid Detoxification Utilizing Ibogaine (2018), Journal of psychoactive drugs
"Among respondents with a history of illicit opioid use, psychedelic drug use is associated with 27% reduced risk of past year opioid dependence and 40% reduced risk of past year opioid abuse."
The association of psychedelic use and opioid use disorders among illicit users in the United States (2017), Journal of psychopharmacology
"High dose ketamine psychotherapy (KPT) produced a significantly greater rate of abstinence in heroin addicts within the first two years of follow-up, a greater and longer-lasting reduction in craving for heroin, as well as greater positive change in nonverbal unconscious emotional attitudes than did low dose KPT."
Ketamine psychotherapy for heroin addiction: immediate effects and two-year follow-up (2002), Journal of substance abuse treatment
"[Among] 75 previous alcohol, cannabis, cocaine and crack users... we observed no serious adverse reactions or fatalities, and found 61% of participants abstinent. Participants treated with ibogaine only once reported abstinence for a median of 5.5 months and those treated multiple times for a median of 8.4 months... These results suggest that the use of ibogaine supervised by a physician and accompanied by psychotherapy can facilitate prolonged periods of abstinence, without the occurrence of fatalities or complications. These results suggest that ibogaine can be a safe and effective treatment for dependence on stimulant and other non-opiate drugs."
Treating drug dependence with the aid of ibogaine: a retrospective study (2014), Journal of psychopharmacology
"Both cocaine studies found improvements in craving, motivation, and decreased cocaine use rates, although studies were limited by small sample sizes, a homogeneous population and short follow-up. Studies of alcohol and opioid use disorders found improvement in abstinence rates in the ketamine group...These results suggest that ketamine may facilitate abstinence across multiple substances of abuse and warrants broader investigation in addiction treatment."
Efficacy of Ketamine in the Treatment of Substance Use Disorders: A Systematic Review (2018), Frontiers in psychiatry
"These results suggest that in the context of a structured treatment program, psilocybin holds considerable promise in promoting long-term smoking abstinence. The present study adds to recent and historical evidence suggesting high success rates when using classic psychedelics in the treatment of addiction"
Long-term Follow-up of Psilocybin-facilitated Smoking Cessation (2017), The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse
"These results suggest that in the context of a structured treatment program, psilocybin holds considerable promise in promoting long-term smoking abstinence. The present study adds to recent and historical evidence suggesting high success rates when using classic psychedelics in the treatment of addiction"
Psilocybin-occasioned mystical experiences in the treatment of tobacco addiction (2014), Current drug abuse reviews
"Of the 358 participants, 38% reported continuous smoking cessation after psychedelic use... 28% reported a persisting reduction in smoking (reducers)...34% reported a temporary smoking reduction before returning to baseline smoking levels...Participants across all groups reported less severe affective withdrawal symptoms (e.g. depression, craving) after psychedelic use compared with previous quit attempts, suggesting a potential mechanism of action for psychedelic-associated smoking cessation/reduction... Results suggest psychedelics may hold promise in treating tobacco addiction as potentially mediated by spiritual experience, changed priorities/values, and improved emotional regulation."
An online survey of tobacco smoking cessation associated with naturalistic psychedelic use (2017), Journal of psychopharmacology
"A single dose of LSD, in the context of various alcoholism treatment programs, is associated with a decrease in alcohol misuse"
LSD for alcoholism: meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (2012), Journal of Psychopharmacology
"The intensity of effects in the first psilocybin session (at week 4) strongly predicted change in drinking during weeks 5-8 and also predicted decreases in craving and increases in abstinence self-efficacy during week 5. There were no significant treatment-related adverse events"
Psilocybin-assisted treatment for alcohol dependence: a proof-of-concept study (2015), Journal of Psychopharmacology
"[343 Participants] reported seven years of problematic alcohol use on average before the psychedelic experience to which they attributed reduced alcohol consumption, with 72% meeting retrospective criteria for severe Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). Most reported taking a moderate or high dose of LSD (38%) or psilocybin (36%), followed by significant reduction in alcohol consumption. After the psychedelic experience 83% no longer met AUD criteria"
Cessation and reduction in alcohol consumption and misuse after psychedelic use (2019), Journal of Psychopharmacology
"In this double-blind randomized clinical trial with 93 participants, the percentage of heavy drinking days during 32 weeks of follow-up was significantly lower in the psilocybin group than in the diphenhydramine group."
Percentage of Heavy Drinking Days Following Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy vs Placebo in the Treatment of Adult Patients With Alcohol Use Disorder (2022), JAMA Network
"Hendricks et al. (2015) found that having ever used any classic psychedelic substance—namely, DMT, ayahuasca, LSD, mescaline, peyote or San Pedro, or psilocybin—was associated with a significantly reduced likelihood of past month psychological distress, past year suicidal thinking, past year suicidal planning, and past year suicide attempt in the United States adult population"
Psilocybin, psychological distress, and suicidality (2015), Journal of Psychopharmacology
"The efficacy of psilocybin in clinical depression previously demonstrated in the elecrophysiologic and neuroimaging findings as also in neuropsychological assessments is further validated by the findings of this rigorously conducted randomized trial"
Return of the psychedelics: Psilocybin for treatment resistant depression (2016), Asian journal of psychiatry
"Treatment was generally well tolerated. Relative to baseline, marked reductions in depressive symptoms were observed for the first 5 weeks post-treatment; nine and four patients met the criteria for response and remission at week 5. Results remained positive at 3 and 6 months. No patients sought conventional antidepressant treatment within 5 weeks of psilocybin. Reductions in depressive symptoms at 5 weeks were predicted by the quality of the acute psychedelic experience. Although limited conclusions can be drawn about treatment efficacy from open-label trials, tolerability was good, effect sizes large and symptom improvements appeared rapidly after just two psilocybin treatment sessions and remained significant 6 months post-treatment in a treatment-resistant cohort."
Psilocybin with psychological support for treatment-resistant depression: six-month follow-up (2017), Psychopharmacology
"Following treatment, inpatient hospital days were reduced by 70%, and hospital admissions were reduced by 65%. The dose of ketamine patients required was stable over time with no evidence of tolerance building. There were no serious adverse events and no long-term negative effects associated with ketamine."
Impact of oral ketamine augmentation on hospital admissions in treatment-resistant depression and PTSD: a retrospective study (2018), Psychopharmacology
"Overall, analyses support the efficacy of psychedelic-assisted therapy across four mental health conditions - PTSD, anxiety/depression associated with a life-threatening illness, unipolar depression, and social anxiety among autistic adults...Results indicated a significant mean between-groups effect size of 1.21, which is larger than the typical effect size found in trials of psychopharmacological or psychotherapy interventions."
A Meta-Analysis of Placebo-Controlled Trials of Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy (2020), Journal of psychoactive drugs
"MDMA, a compound belonging to the family of entactogens, has been demonstrated to be useful to treat post-traumatic stress disorders"
Hallucinogens in Mental Health: Preclinical and Clinical Studies on LSD, Psilocybin, MDMA, and Ketamine (2021), The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience
"Randomized clinical trials support the efficacy of MDMA in the treatment of PTSD and psilocybin in the treatment of depression and cancer-related anxiety"
Psychedelics and Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy (2020), The American journal of psychiatry
"In a controlled clinical environment, psilocybin was safely used in subjects with OCD and was associated with acute reductions in core OCD symptoms in several subjects."
Safety, tolerability, and efficacy of psilocybin in 9 patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (2006), The journal of clinical psychiatry
"Altogether, the results from the studies reviewed in this paper suggest a substantial therapeutic potential. This calls for further research to confirm the results observed so far and further explain the underlying mechanisms."
What is the clinical evidence on psilocybin for the treatment of psychiatric disorders? A systematic review (2021), Porto biomed journal
"The authors interviewed 53 cluster headache patients who had used psilocybin or lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) to treat their condition. Twenty-two of 26 psilocybin users reported that psilocybin aborted attacks; 25 of 48 psilocybin users and 7 of 8 LSD users reported cluster period termination; 18 of 19 psilocybin users and 4 of 5 LSD users reported remission period extension."
Response of cluster headache to psilocybin and LSD (2006), Neurology
"The final analysis included responses from 496 participants... The indoleamine hallucinogens, psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide, and lysergic acid amide, were comparable to or more efficacious than most conventional medications."
Indoleamine Hallucinogens in Cluster Headache: Results of the Clusterbusters Medication Use Survey (2015), Journal of psychoactive drugs
"Our results suggest that hallucinogens may promote alcohol and other drug abstinence and prosocial behavior in a population with high rates of recidivism"
Hallucinogen use predicts reduced recidivism among substance-involved offenders under community corrections supervision (2014), Journal of psychopharmacology
"Nature relatedness significantly increased and authoritarianism significantly decreased for the patients 1 week after the dosing sessions. At 7-12 months post-dosing, nature relatedness remained significantly increased and authoritarianism remained decreased at trend level"
Increased nature relatedness and decreased authoritarian political views after psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression (2018), Journal of psychopharmacology