Understanding Emerging Mental Health Treatments
There has been a lot of interest and publicity about emerging treatments for mental health conditions such as psychedelic assisted therapies for PTSD. 
This doesn't mean that they don't work we just don't have enough evidence to know if they do work.
Evidence is really important and helps us answer questions like "does this treatment work?" and "is this treatment safe?" 
But it's important to remember that not all evidence is equal.
To be confident that a treatment will work you have to look at the source of the evidence. The highest level of evidence comes from reviews of high quality studies. The lowest level of evidence comes from personal opinions and marketing materials. 
The better the source of the information, the more confidence you can have in the findings. 
We reviewed over a hundred studies focusing on common mental health conditions and related emerging treatments. 
We selected studies with high quality designs, but many of those studies had problems with the way they were conducted or reported. 
As the study problems went up, our confidence in the study findings went down. 
Findings were mixed. Some showed an effect of the new treatment and some didn't. 
We need more consistent evidence to find out if emerging treatments actually work. 
Emerging treatments may also have medical and psychological risks. 
Some psychedelics can make cardiac and psychotic symptoms worse. 
Other treatments can interact with existing medications and cause bad side effects. 
Evidence-based treatments work for many people and these treatments should always be tried before considering emerging treatments. 
But some people are looking for alternative treatment options. 
While there is strong interest in emerging treatments for mental health conditions, more high quality research is needed to determine whether these treatments are safe and effective. 
We will continue to review the evidence as new studies are published in Australia and overseas.
Providing our community with the most up-to-date information on safe and effective treatments for mental health conditions is our biggest priority.