Speaker Bio
Natalie Gukasyan, M.D. is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center. After receiving her M.D. from Tulane University School of Medicine Dr. Gukasyan completed her internship and residency in psychiatry at Johns Hopkins. She went on to complete a NIDA T32 fellowship in behavioral pharmacology under the mentorship of Dr. Roland Griffiths, focusing on safety and efficacy of psilocybin-assisted therapy for people with mood and eating disorders. Before joining the faculty at Columbia, Dr. Gukasyan served as Medical Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, where her research also spanned other clinical aspects of psychedelics including placebo and psychotherapy effects in treatment, as well as medication interactions.
ICPR 2024 Abstract
Psilocybin for Depression - What do we know from existing clinical trials and what comes next?
Psilocybin is currently intensively researched in the treatment of depressive disorders. Recently published phase 2 randomized controlled trials (RCT) provide convincing evidence for the efficacy of one or two doses of psilocybin in treating depressive symptoms for up to two to four weeks [1-3] and possibly op to 1 year [4]; while especially the results by Goodwin et al. [2] at the same time refute the notion of psilocybin as a one-shot long-term miracle cure.
The results underline that the picture is more complex and force us (1) to gain good understanding of the therapeutic mechanisms at play, in order to be able to enhance them, and (2) to change the existing view of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy being two distinct or even independent therapeutic paths [e.g. 5].
This symposium aims to provide an in depth discussion of the existing RCTs of psilocybin for depression and their implications for further clinical research and practice by bringing together players of key clinical academic research groups in the field.
Davis, A. K. et al. (2021). JAMA Psychiatry, 78(5), 481–489.
Goodwin, G. M. et al. (2022). The New England Journal of Medicine, 387(18), 1637–1648.
von Rotz, R. et al. (2022). EClinicalMedicine, 56, 101809.
Gukasyan, N., et al. (2022). Journal of Psychopharmacology, 36(2), 151–158.
Gründer, G. et al. (2023). The Lancet Psychiatry, S2215-0366(23)00363-2. Advance online publication.