Fuente: Prohibición Partners Lugar: General Report Contents
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Introduction →
Definitions And Scope →
Executive Summary →
Key Trends →

Market Value →
Legislation and Regulation →
Consumer Attitudes →
Healthcare Providers’ Attitudes →

Spotlight On Health →
Psychedelics – Timeline of Key Developments →
Countries to Watch →
Psychedelic Profiles →

Key Psychedelics Deep Dive →
Other Psychedelics of Note →
Psychedelics as Medicine: Potential Therapies →
Psychedelics and Technology →

Psychedelics Per Country →
Psychedelics and The Law →
Patents and Intellectual Property →
Therapy Practitioners →

Psychedelic Research →
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Expert Interview: Zach Haigney (The Trip Report)



Why the intersection matters



Zach Haigney frames the psychedelics–technology intersection as both a practical and a technical issue. Practically, mental healthcare faces a massive unmet need, and psychedelics appear to offer a transdiagnostic option: in combination with therapy, the same molecules show promise across conditions and symptom clusters—from PTSD to substance use disorders. Technically, the biggest constraint is scalability. Today, psychedelic-assisted therapies (PAT) generally require two therapists to support a patient for at least eight hours, typically across two to three dosing sessions, plus four to twelve additional preparation and integration meetings. The challenge, he argues, is making PAT safe, accessible, and deployable at scale.



He notes that technology is already reshaping mental healthcare more broadly. Digital Health Tech (DHT), also described as digital therapeutics (DTx), is reaching a point where it can become a viable care option. One major acceleration came during the COVID-19 pandemic, which helped establish telemedicine as a standard tool in clinical practice.



Beyond telemedicine, Haigney points to the rapid improvement and adoption of smartphone and wearable sensors (e.g., Apple Watch and Fitbit). This growth fuels real-world data and real-world evidence, supporting better research and development, as well as more continuous patient care and monitoring through real-time tracking and analytics.



He also highlights the rise of digital phenotyping (a term coined in 2016): using passive data from devices—such as steps and heart-rate variability—to make behavioural and mental health more measurable and objective. Early psychedelic-focused applications are already emerging to support people before, during, and after psychedelic experiences.



Drug-software combination products and why they matter for psychedelics



Haigney describes drug-software combination products (DSCP) as tools that merge the strengths of a specific drug with technology (often a mobile application) to improve outcomes. He gives examples outside psychedelics, such as improving A1C outcomes in diabetes through monitoring software paired with medication, and combining an Apple Watch with biometrics-based insights to support blood-pressure reduction.



He argues DSCP opens a pathway for psychedelic companies to create patentable combination products. Biometrics could potentially inform the optimal dose or optimal timing for a psilocybin dose—or indicate when a person should not engage in PAT, for example if biomarkers suggest raised blood pressure.



At the same time, he emphasises that expanding monitoring raises serious privacy and ownership questions. Mental health data is already sensitive; adding psychedelics—legal or not—raises the stakes further. Haigney argues the industry will need clearer answers about who owns medical data, and stronger safeguards against leaks and hacking, before DSCP can be implemented widely alongside PAT.



What could change over the next 5–10 years



Haigney expects technology could make mental health measurement more objective than clinician perception or survey-based symptom checklists. If that promise is met, he suggests psychiatry could move toward an overhaul of disease classification, with greater focus on objective biometric markers. He links this direction to the US National Institute of Mental Health’s Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework: a multivariable, biologically-based approach to understanding mental disorders (rather than a purely symptom-based one), aimed at enabling personalised mental healthcare at scale.



He describes four broad areas where psychedelics and technology are already intersecting:




Diagnosis and symptom management



Care delivery, with increased precision in administration and observation



Preparation



Integration, including personalised prompts, checklists, feedback, and tools used before, during, and after PAT




He also notes that DHT will have to prove it performs better than existing options, and that PAT and DSCP will need to deliver clinical advantages without compromising privacy.



Routes to market: the “who pays?” question



Haigney says the key differentiator across routes to market is who pays. The most difficult—and potentially most lucrative—route is FDA approval. He notes that organisations and companies such as MAPS, COMPASS, and Usona are pursuing this path for PAT. If therapies are approved as medicines, they can potentially be reimbursed by insurance and move into mainstream healthcare.



He points to EndeavorRx, a digital therapeutic the FDA approved in June 2020, marketed to improve attention function in children with ADHD. The game adapts difficulty in response to participant input and uses targeted sensory and motor challenges designed to engage brain systems involved in attention. Haigney notes that in EndeavorRx studies, about half of participating children experienced clinically significant improvement in ADHD-related impairments within two months.



He also notes that the FDA recognises DSCP and has been proactive through the Digital Health Innovation Action Plan, describing it as intended to help ensure timely access to high-quality, safe, and effective digital health products. One element particularly relevant to PAT is pre-certification, which could enable faster review and approval of DSCP.



Beyond FDA pathways, he outlines two additional routes:




B2B enablement: providing technology to PAT providers—tools for preparation, music, monitoring mental/health metrics, and integration—so clinicians can deliver better, more scalable care.



Direct-to-consumer: selling applications directly to individuals. Pricing may be lower, but the addressable audience is much larger, and several psychedelic apps are already exploring this route.




EEG brain–computer interfaces: a near-term example



Haigney highlights an example in development by Psyber, an atai Life Sciences portfolio company: EEG-based brain–computer interface technology intended for use alongside psychotherapy. He suggests this could enable real-time interpretation of emotional, behavioural, and mental states, dramatically shortening the feedback loop from weeks to minutes.



He anticipates atai’s use-case would be integrating this technology across its broader portfolio to improve efficacy and marketing, positioning it as a DSCP that can be patented through specific protocols. Longer-term, he expects tools like this could be combined with PAT to track patient health throughout treatment, offering caregivers significantly more information and giving patients continuous, app-based support during PAT.



Could virtual reality play a role?



Haigney argues VR is reaching an “inflection point,” comparing the current generation of VR headsets to where the iPhone 1 was for smartphones. He also notes shared characteristics between VR and psychedelics: both can alter consciousness, shift perception of what is “real,” and change perceptions of space and time—both functioning as forms of experiential medicine.



He outlines three potential roles for VR in this context:




Preparation: VR could help people understand perceptual changes and reduce anxiety about the psychedelic experience.



Substitution: VR experiences might be used instead of chemically induced ones, with the possibility of achieving neuroplasticity with lower physiological risk.



Combination: VR paired with psychedelics could enable closed-loop human–computer interfaces—using data such as gaze direction and heart-rate variability to adapt the experience in real time, potentially helping participants “surrender” to the process (a key component of PAT).




He compares this concept to elite sport: athletes improve faster when they receive immediate feedback on performance. He argues PAT currently lacks this tight feedback loop—participants typically listen to music with minimal interaction during the dosing session, then reflect afterwards. With technology, PAT could evolve toward immediate feedback, recordings for review, and tools that guide the process more dynamically—leveraging the “pliable state” during and after psychedelic experiences.



He points to Neuroscape as a forward-looking group in this space, using translational neuroscience approaches that modulate experiences based on biomarkers. He also notes that with Robin Carhart-Harris continuing his research there, more integration of DTx and PAT is likely.



What should investors watch?



Haigney says that from the drug-development perspective, many obvious opportunities are already being pursued—particularly since public markets began paying close attention to psychedelics in the second half of 2019, and many companies are already working on second-generation alternatives to major psychedelics.



He suggests the next major investment phase may be in “set and setting”—and more broadly in technologies that enhance PAT through DSCP. He also flags interest in:




Legal frameworks that expand access outside FDA approval (from US states like California and Oregon to Australia), while noting psychedelic legalisation may create a market meaningfully different from cannabis.



Ancillary tools that support psychedelic research and PAT delivery, including examples such as Wavepaths, which provides music designed to support the therapeutic benefit of psychedelics.




Beyond treatment: neurological enhancement



Finally, Haigney argues psychedelics may have applications beyond treating diagnosed mental health and substance use disorders, supporting “betterment” for well people—while acknowledging these categories aren’t rigid. He notes that improvements in PAT enabled by DSCP could extend into other performance domains. As an example, he suggests a professional athlete might use psychedelics to work through fear, become more attuned to their body, or reframe a mental blockage in a way that changes outcomes.



He cautions that robust evidence for cognitive enhancement may take time, but points to the growth of microdosing culture (including Silicon Valley) and the increasing availability of psychedelic coaches across locations such as Austin and Amsterdam—suggesting continued development and experimentation in this area.








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The post Psychedelics x Technology – PSYCH: The Psychedelics As Medicine Report 3rd Edition appeared first on Prohibition Partners.