a16z Podcast

Psychedelics: Striking a Balance Between Benefits and Side Effects

David Olson and Lauren Richardson

Posted January 23, 2021

In recent years, there’s been a shift in how we think about psychedelics – from drugs of abuse and recreation, to powerful drugs for treating neuropsychiatric conditions such as depression, addiction, and PTSD.

But there’s still a lot we don’t know about how they work, and how we can maximize their therapeutic benefits while minimizing their adverse side effects. So this episode of Journal Club discusses a method for striking that balance, from a paper published in Nature last month, “A non-hallucinogenic psychedelic analogue with therapeutic potential“… which could represent a major step forward in psychedelic medicine.

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The a16z Podcast discusses the most important ideas within technology with the people building it. Each episode aims to put listeners ahead of the curve, covering topics like AI, energy, genomics, space, and more.

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