Supporters
We are developing and delivering leading-edge research and education programs. Partnership and funding allow us to contribute tangible and impactful benefits to society. Please get in touch if you would like to support our work, or find out more.
Future directions
Our future work will focus on:
- Identifying new conditions that psychedelic therapies could treat
- Developing real-world models of care
- Assessing the cost-effectiveness of psychedelic treatments
- Developing and delivering public education and professional training
- Exploring synergies between psychedelics and various psychotherapeutic and behavioural interventions
- Investigating how psychedelics work
- Predicting which patients will respond, and how to tailor treatment
- Increasing the duration of clinical benefits
Support Clinical Psychedelic research
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Some examples of projects under development are shown below.
Psychedelic Research and Treatment Clinics
Psychedelic therapies have great potential to be a useful in treating certain psychiatric conditions, little research has been done within a context that resembles real-world service-delivery. We are building psychedelic research clinics that aim to:
- Develop standards of care in clinical practice
- Explore the safety and effectiveness of treating more representative and diverse help-seekers
- Assess affordability and reimbursement potential
- Train and supervise therapists
Predicting which patients will respond, and how to tailor treatment
Some people may not benefit from psychedelic therapies or may require tailored treatment. Given the burdens associated with psychedelic therapies, being able to predict this would be extremely useful. This study will investigate whether pharmacogenomic, microbiomic, biomarker, acute subjective effects, and other individual differences can predict response to psychedelic treatments and inform personalised care.
Personalized dosing, long-term treatment and relapse prevention
All modern psychedelic studies are limited by having used brief and pre-determined interventions (e.g., a single dose of psilocybin given alongside a specified course of psychotherapy). This study will assess the safety and efficacy of longer-term and tailored psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy treatment. Innovations will includevaried dose session number, dose amounts, frequency of psychotherapy, and relapse prevention treatment.
Psycholytic psychotherapy
Contemporary trials have used a limited number of high-dose sessions with non-directive therapy. However, moderate doses of psychedelics alongside more ‘active’ forms of psychotherapy (‘psycholytic psychotherapy’) were explored during the 1950s and 1960s, with some impressive reports. This study will develop and test a novel approach to psycholytic psilocybin therapy to determine any unique benefits or uses of this treatment model.
Synergies of psilocybin and meditation
Studies suggest that combining psychedelic-assisted therapy and meditation practices can enhance the beneficial effects of both interventions. This project will investigate how forms of meditation before, during and after psilocybin administration might enhance therapeutic effects in the treatment of mental illness.
Psychedelics and lifestyle changes
Psychedelics can greatly increase motivation to change problematic behaviour, like quitting smoking, engaging in exercise, and building social connections. This study will combine a short psychedelic intervention with best-practice models in Lifestyle Medicine to investigate whether psychedelics can augment long-term changes in lifestyle and metal health.
Psilocybin for elite athlete mental health
Performance pressures, overtraining, interpersonal conflict, injury, and premature retirement all contribute to the poorer mental health observed in athletes compared to the general population. This study will investigate the potential of psilocybin-assisted therapy that has been specifically developed for elite athletes to improve mental health. It will also investigate the impact of psilocybin on athletic performance to determine whether it would classify as a performance enhancing drug (sports ‘doping’).
Peer support forum
Psychedelic therapies can be very useful for some people, but can also lead to a strong motivation to connect to others who have experienced psychedelic treatments, and access ongoing psychedelic-informed care. This project would see the establishment of a free, clinically-moderated peer support forum (including an app) to assist participants with sustaining the changes that occurred following psychedelic treatment, and to build community. Furthermore, we want to use the platform to assess the long-term effects and implications of psychedelic treatments to help develop better and more sustainable treatment and continued care models.
Our partners and funders
The Clinical Psychedelic Lab is incredibly grateful for the wonderful support from our partners and funders.
