John J. Miller, MD: A New Era For Psychiatric Medications

The armamentarium of medications for psychiatric disorders is growing rapidly.

What started with the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of esketamine (Spravato) in 2019 for major depressive disorder (MDD), has spawned the studies of other compounds and options such as LSD and psilocybin.

And then there is cannabis, a somewhat vague term that describes a treatment that contains tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD).

“One of the biggest issues currently is that cannabis is a very vague and general term,” Miller said. “Back in the early 60s when it was being used recreationally it was from the original plant. Those strains of cannabis had about 2% THC and 2% CBD.”

Miller recently co-chaired the 2022 Annual Psychiatric Times™ World CME Conference in San Diego and joined HCPLive® for this episode of DocTalk to talk about misunderstandings regarding the use of cannabis in psychiatry and the promising future of using psilocybin and psychedelics in the field.