BRWN-000094 - Psychedelics in Mental Health Treatment: Hope or Hype?
Psychedelic medicines present a potentially new approach to treating conditions such as major depression, PTSD, substance use disorders, and distress related to life-threatening illness. However, their checkered past and hyped future leave some feeling skeptical. This on-demand lecture, presented by a nursing professor of psychopharmacology and an experienced psychedelic assisted therapy researcher, attempts to bring dispassionate nuance to the subject, exploring the history, mechanisms of action, and evidence for these treatments that bring together medication and psychotherapy, examining the potential opportunities and challenges that come with this new way of approaching the clinical treatment of some of our most vexing conditions.
This is a recorded asynchronous distance learning course.
- Approximate duration: 1 hour
- Registration: $30
- CEs: 1
(contingent on passing a post-test, score of 70% or higher)
Following registration and payment, you will receive an email with a link to view the lecture, print off handouts, and take the post-test. Complete viewing and the post-test at your convenience at any time over the next 30 days.
Questions about online lectures? Please email us at brownprofdev@wustl.edu.
Course Outline
Content Level: Beginner
Target Audience: Social Workers and other Mental Health Professionals.
Date Recorded: January 13, 2026
Agenda & Timing:
- Psychedelic history - 15 mins
- Drug mechanisms of action and existing data on efficacy and safety -25 mins
- Potential challenges in delivering this therapy in the future - 20 mins
Learner Outcomes
- Describe the historical evolution of psychedelic medicines, including key events that shaped public perception, regulation, and clinical use.
- Explain the proposed mechanisms of action and therapeutic processes involved in psychedelic-assisted treatments for conditions such as major depression, PTSD, substance use disorders, and end-of-life distress.
- Identify current evidence, opportunities, and challenges associated with integrating psychedelic medicines into modern clinical practice, including safety considerations and the role of psychotherapy.
Course Completion Requirements:
The Brown School is an approved provider of Social Work CEUs in Missouri and Illinois.
The Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis, Professional Development, provider #2130, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 9/24/2025 – 9/24/2028. Social workers completing this course receive 1 clinical continuing education credits.
To earn CE credit, registrants must watch all videos in their entirety, pass a post-test with a score of 70% or higher, and complete and evaluation with in 30 days of registration. Partial credit is not available.
Missouri and Illinois CE Certificates will be available online within 10 business days of course completion by visiting your learner profile at https://ce.wustl.edu/portal/logon.do?method=load&parentSite=brown. You will receive an email notification with specific instructions for accessing the online certificate when it is available. ACE CE Certificates, if requested in your evaluation survey, will be emailed within 10 business days of course completion.
For more information about CEs, accessibility, refund/cancelation policy, our grievance policy, or other inquiries please visit our About Us page or email brownprofdev@wustl.edu.