I wrote the following thinking about my own struggle with grief:
Grief laughs at the clock.
It hits you at 3 p.m., months later…at the vending machine…when the stupidest thing makes you miss them most.
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When grief doesn’t fade with time, what then?
We tend to treat grief as a season, something that passes, however slowly, but for some people, it lingers. It becomes a second shadow, woven into everything. Clinicians call it prolonged grief disorder, a state where loss doesn’t integrate, and the ache feels as sharp years later as it did the day it happened.
In a new episode of Causes or Cures, I talk with Dr. Greg Fonzo, Assistant Professor and Co-Director of the Charmaine and Gordon McGill Center for Psychedelic Research and Therapy at Dell Medical School. His team is exploring whether psychedelics—specifically psilocybin and 5-MeO-DMT—could help people stuck in prolonged grief find a path toward healing.
Can Psychedelics help with Prolonged Grief? We dive into:
*The origins and mission of Dell Med’s Center for Psychedelic Research and Therapy
*What “prolonged grief” really means and how it differs from typical bereavement
*Why psychedelics may create new windows for emotional processing
*How Dr. Fonzo’s team designs their studies, who they recruit, and the ethical guardrails in place
*The broader promise—and pitfalls—of psychedelic medicine as it races from taboo to mainstream
Many are Suffering
Prolonged grief isn’t rare, especially in the wake of a pandemic that left so many mourning in isolation. The idea that a guided psychedelic experience could help people release what feels impossible to release is both scientifically fascinating and profoundly human.
🎧 You can listen to the full conversation on the Causes or Cures podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts.
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In case you missed this other episode on how pyschedelics are being used for PTSD and more, definitely check out this episode with Dr. Martin Polanco. It will tell you everything you need to know about Ibogaine and exactly how a clinical retreat at Dr. Polanco’s center would go down.