Psychedelics and Psychotherapy with Dr. George Greer, M.D.

Welcome to the Psychology Talk Podcast.  This page is provided in connection with our interview with Dr. George Greer of the Heffter Institute and is referenced by Dr. Hoye and Dr. Greer in the interview above:

This information is for all of you who contacted Heffter recently about helping with this research or pursuing further education to do this research or provide psychedelics and psychotherapy.

Regarding education, because there are no graduate programs that focus on psychedelic research, it’s probably best to find the program that you like the best.  Then you would be eligible for the post-graduate certificate program at CIIS to educate psychotherapists about this work:  http://www.ciis.edu/public-programs-and-performances/certificate-programs/certificate-in-psychedelic-assisted-therapies-and-research.

In terms of getting involved in the current research, Heffter does not conduct the research, but performs scientific reviews of the proposals and then funds the studies at various medical schools.  So if you are interested in participating, you should contact the researchers through http://clinicaltrials.gov with a search for “psilocybin,” and seeing which ones are actively recruiting subjects.  You can check back there every few months to see when new studies begin recruiting.

As you will see there, the opportunities for treatment in research studies happening right now is limited to alcohol addiction at New York University, nicotine/smoking addiction and treatment-resistant depression at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, cocaine addiction at U. Alabama, Birmingham, and obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression at Yale University.  There is also a study at the University of Zürich in Switzerland for depression, and planned studies for depression at Imperial College in London, England.  

There are also studies that are not for treatment of any condition, but are to learn about the effects of psilocybin.  This includes studies at both NYU and Hopkins for religious professionals a study of long-term meditators at Hopkins.

If you live near any of those locations, you can contact the researchers through the links at http://clinicaltrials.gov.

Later this year, there will be a large, multi-center study treating depression in patients with and without a life-threatening cancer diagnosis, but the locations have not been determined.  This will be a “Phase 3” study, which is required by FDA before the drug can be approved for prescription use.  The Usona Institute is conducting this study, and you can learn about them and subscribe to their newsletter at http://www.usonainstitute.org and subscribe to their newsletter here: http://www.usonainstitute.org/contact/.

Hopefully, psilocybin will be approved by the FDA for treatment of depression a few years from now, and that treatment would occur at special clinics with specially trained clinicians.

I hope this information is helpful for you.

George Greer, MD, President, Heffter Research Institute

This is a reply to the many people who contacted the Heffter Research Institute through our website about being a subject for psilocybin treatment and related research.  Information about all the current studies recruiting patients can be found at http://clinicaltrials.gov with a search for “psilocybin,” and you can check back there every few months to see when new studies begin recruiting.

As you will see there, the opportunities for treatment in research studies happening right now is limited to alcohol addiction at New York University; nicotine/smoking addiction and depression at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore; cocaine addiction at U. Alabama, Birmingham; and obsessive-compulsive disorder, treatment-resistant depression and migraine and cluster headaches at Yale.  There is also a study at the University of Zürich in Switzerland for depression, and planned studies for depression at Imperial College in London, England.

There are also studies at both NYU and Hopkins for religious professionals.

Next year, there will be a large, multi-center study conducted by the Usona Institute treating major depression, but the locations have not been determined.  This will be a “Phase 3” study, which is required by FDA before the drug can be approved for prescription use.  You can sign up here, https://usonaclinicaltrials.org/major-depressive-disorder-psilocybin-clinical-trial-psil201/follow-trial to be notified about participating in this research.

Hopefully, psilocybin will be approved by the FDA for treatment of depression in patients a few years from now, and that treatment would occur at special clinics with specially trained clinicians.

Please note that we definitely do not recommend that anyone try to treat themselves with psilocybin mushrooms.  There are psychological risks if you or close family members have had serious psychiatric symptoms, and the therapy and support of trained clinicians is an absolutely essential part of the treatment, especially when anxiety or other kinds of distress occur during the session, which is fairly common. Unsupervised use of psilocybin mushrooms can be emotionally traumatic without the support of clinicians who understand how to use it successfully.

I’m sorry there are not more treatment opportunities at present, but the researchers are working very hard to do everything required to make psilocybin an approved drug so that the public will have access to it for treatment.  At present, there is no way to know how or when it will be allowed for non-cancer patients.

Thanks for letting us know about your interest in our research.  I hope you find ways to help with your situation until psilocybin treatments for cancer patients and others have been sufficiently researched to know that they are safe and reasonably effective.

George Greer, MD, President, Heffter Research Institute