Fyrirlestur: Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy for Addiction

Miðstöð í lýðheilsuvísindum býður ykkur öll velkomin á fyrirlestur Dr. Jonathan Brett: Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy for Addiction: Clinical Research and Policy from Australia.

Recent years have seen a renaissance in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy for a variety of mental health conditions. Psilocybin is a serotonin 5-HT2A receptor agonist (psychedelic drug) with low abuse potential that produces acute and transitory changes to perception, cognition and affect. Critically, psilocybin delivered in combination with psychotherapy has demonstrated the capacity to safely enhance the affective and cognitive impacts of psychotherapy in a number of small clinical trials. Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy also has demonstrated safety and efficacy in phase II trials of alcohol dependence and cocaine dependence.

In February 2023, Australia became the first country to classify psychedelics (psilocybin, MDMA) as a medicine. Psilocybin, was down-scheduled by the Therapeutic Goods Agency to a Schedule 8 prescription medicine for treatment-resistant depression via an authorised prescriber scheme, recognising the safety and effectiveness of this treatment.

In this presentation, Dr Brett will review the current evidence of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy to treat addictions, the potential mechanisms of action, challenges in clinical trial design and his recent results of a pilot trial for methamphetamine dependence. Finally, Dr Brett will discuss psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in the Australian setting and implications for medicine policy.

About the presenter:

Dr Jonathan Brett is a Senior Staff Specialist in Clinical Pharmacology, Toxicology and Addiction medicine & Conjoint Associate Professor (St. Vincent’s Clinical School, UNSW Sydney) and a Senior Research Fellow (Medicines Intelligence Centre for Research Excellence, UNSW Sydney). He completed a PhD in Pharmacoepidemiology and Medicines Policy in 2018 focusing on the use of administrative data to measure the quality use of psychotropics in mental health.

As a principal investigator, Dr Brett has recently completed the world’s first pilot study on psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for methamphetamine dependence (ACTRN12622000463774) and is currently in recruiting patients to a clinical trial on psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for treatment resistant depression (ACTRN12623000832673). Dr Brett is also the medical lead investigator for a randomized clinical trial on psilocybin microdosing for depression (ACTRN12623001064695). These clinical trials are conducted in Sydney, Australia, with funding from government and industry.