The Psychedelic Access and Research European Alliance (PAREA) has officially launched with an impressive array of wide-ranging support amongst charities, patient groups, not-for-profits and psychedelic industry partners.
Drug Science was an incubator for the PAREA collective. We recognised that to ensure that psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy was integrated into each EU member state’s healthcare system, a centralised group needed to emerge that contains the most prominent organisations working with psychedelics in Europe.
This multidisciplinary partnership intends on changing perceptions about psychedelic-assisted therapies, by combining and streamlining the knowledge and expertise of its members. Each PAREA partner brings its own unique perspective regarding the regulation of psychedelic medicines and the barriers that this novel therapy will face in the coming years. PAREA is coming together to address these barriers and provide evidence-based policy recommendations and expertise to the EU policymakers.
European health systems are not prepared for these treatments – a lot remains to be done to pave the way for their effective rollout and to build a proper medical oversight into the psychedelic model. Without adequate actions, psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy may not reach patients who need it or may drive them to seek unregulated underground therapy as psychedelics’ medical properties are coming into mainstream knowledge. The work must start now to ensure equitable, timely, affordable, safe and legal access to psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in the near future. Patients should have them covered within their existing healthcare framework, where they live, by a trained therapist they trust, and paid by healthcare insurance. Otherwise, those most in need will be left without access, including in lower-income and socioeconomically deprived communities, which are disproportionately affected by mental health problems and addictions.
On 23 June 2022, PAREA hosted its inaugural event: Preparing Europe for Novel Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies. The keynote address was delivered by Dr Thomas Insel, former Director of the US National Institute of Mental Health (2002 – 2015). Other speakers included representatives from the European Parliament, European Commission, European Medicines Agency, patients and organizations representing them as well as PAREA members.
After the inaugural meeting of the PAREA collective, several key recommendations were decided upon and they now form the PAREA ‘Call to Action‘ to European decision-makers. Click below to learn more.
To stay updated with all of the developments from PAREA, you can follow them on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and on the PAREA website.