The Need for Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy in the Black Community and the Burdens of its Provision

Introduction

The paper opens by situating psychedelic medicine — entheogens that produce non-ordinary states of consciousness — as a re-emerging therapeutic field with particular promise for trauma-related disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It notes that MDMA-assisted psychotherapy has progressed to late-stage clinical development (FDA "breakthrough therapy" designation in 2017 and Phase III trials), and that psychedelics can attenuate the fear-driven reactivity that perpetuates traumatic symptoms. The authors use PTSD as a model indication because of its stronger empirical base, while emphasising that race-based or racial trauma is a related and under-researched phenomenon that disproportionately affects Black, Indigenous and other People of Colour (BIPOC). Norrholm and colleagues set out to describe the historical and contemporary landscape connecting psychedelic-assisted therapy with the needs of Black communities, to document barriers to access and provision, and to propose pathways to more culturally competent and equitable delivery. They foreground racial trauma experienced by Black Americans, review physiological and psychological sequelae, survey the emerging clinical evidence for entheogens (particularly MDMA and psilocybin), and discuss systemic, clinical training, and community-level challenges and solutions for expanding access in BIPOC populations. A positionality statement clarifies that the authors include Black and White researchers with lived and clinical experience relevant to the topic, and that this perspective shapes the paper's aims and recommendations.