New horizons in psychedelic medicine

Title of Project

New horizons in psychedelic medicine

Name of Advisor/s

Robin Rodd, Zoltan Sarnyai

College

College of Medicine & Dentistry

Summary of Project

Over the last ten years, there has been a rapid global expansion in clinical research involving psychedelic drugs such as MDMA, LSD, psilocybin and DMT. Initial research has indicated that these substances may be useful in treating or preventing a range of major “civilizational diseases” such as addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. There are two broad difficulties to developing these initial studies, 1) ethical constraints around the administration of scheduled substances, 2) the importance of subjective experience that problematizes the development of double blind trials. This project seeks to 1) identify the most fruitful field of future research in terms of medical outcomes and funding possibilities and 2) develop a bio-psycho-social framework to advance this research.

Key Words

biopsychosocial medicine, psychedelic science, civilizational disease

Would suit an applicant who

Has a background in either medical anthropology, medical psychology or neuropharmacology willing to rigorously engage in training in theoretical and methodological approaches spanning all three aspects of biopsychosocial medicine.