Psychedelics for Treating Mental Disorders | Dr. Matthew Johnson

**Andrew D. Huberman** (0:00)
Welcome to the Huberman Lab podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.
I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of Neurobiology and Ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. Today, I have the pleasure of introducing Dr. Matthew Johnson. Dr. Johnson is a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where he also directs the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research. As many of you know, there's extreme excitement about the use of psychedelics for the treatment of various disorders of the mind. Dr. Johnson's laboratory is among the premier laboratories in the world understanding how these compounds work, how things like psilocybin and LSD and related compounds allow neural circuitry in the brain to be shaped and change such that people can combat diseases like depression or trauma or other disorders of the mind that cause tremendous suffering. Dr. Johnson is also an expert in understanding how different types of drugs impact different types of human behaviors, such as sexual behavior, risk-taking and crime. Dr. Johnson and his work have also been featured prominently in the popular press, such as articles in the New York Times and Michael Pollan's book, How to Change Your Mind and in a feature in 60 Minutes about psychedelics and the new emerging science of psychedelic therapies for treating mental disorders. During the course of today's conversation, Dr. Johnson and I talk about psychedelics at the level of what's called microdosing, whether or not it is useful for the treatment of any mental disorders. We also talk about more typical macrodosing, what those macrodoses entail, and he walks us through what an experiment of a patient taking psychedelics for the treatment of depression looks like in his laboratory from start to finish. The conversation was an absolutely fascinating one for me to partake in. I learned so much about the past, present, and future of psychedelic treatments and compounds. And indeed, I hope to have Dr. Johnson on this podcast again in the not too distant future, so that we can talk about other compounds that powerfully impact the mind and human behavior, and perhaps can also be used to treat various diseases. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is, however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science-related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, I'd like to thank the sponsors of today's podcast. Our first sponsor is Athletic Greens. Athletic Greens is an all-in-one vitamin mineral probiotic drink. I've been taking Athletic Greens since 2012, so I'm delighted that they're sponsoring the podcast. The reason I started taking Athletic Greens and the reason I still take Athletic Greens once or twice a day is that it helps me cover all of my basic nutritional needs. It makes up for any deficiencies that I might have. In addition, it has probiotics, which are vital for microbiome health. I've done a couple of episodes now on the so-called gut microbiome and the ways in which the microbiome interacts with your immune system, with your brain to regulate mood, and essentially with every biological system relevant to health throughout your brain and body. With Athletic Greens, I get the vitamins I need, the minerals I need and the probiotics to support my microbiome. If you'd like to try Athletic Greens, you can go to athleticgreens.com/huberman and claim a special offer. They'll give you five free travel packs plus a year's supply of vitamin D3K2. There are a ton of data now showing that vitamin D3 is essential for various aspects of our brain and body health. Even if we're getting a lot of sunshine, many of us are still deficient in vitamin D3. And K2 is also important because it regulates things like cardiovascular function, calcium in the body and so on. again, go to athleticgreens.com/huberman to claim the special offer of the five free travel packs and the year supply of vitamin D3 K2. Today's episode is also brought to us by Element. Element is an electrolyte drink that has everything you need and nothing you don't. That means the exact ratios of electrolytes are an element and those are sodium, magnesium and potassium, but it has no sugar. I've talked many times before on this podcast about the key role of hydration and electrolytes for nerve cell function, neuron function, as well as the function of all the cells and all the tissues and organ systems of the body. If we have sodium, magnesium and potassium present in the proper ratios, all of those cells function properly and all our bodily systems can be optimized. 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