Provider Update 5.3.2021

We are excited to share with you a recording of our webinar with Dr. Shannon Hughes, which detailed the future of psychedelics in mental health care.

Also, below are answers to questions and additional resources that we were not able to get to during the webinar.

• Do you have to be a licensed clinician in order to become certified?
• Currently for the MAPS MDMA therapy protocol, therapists work in pairs and at least one therapist needs to be licensed. There are not accepted standards for ketamine-assisted therapy, so you could go through a ketamine therapy training and, as long as you have a prescriber you are working with, you could technically do ketamine-assisted therapy. This is a rapidly evolving area though.
• Is there training currently available for practitioners to administer and facilitate psilocybin?
• No, psilocybin is only available through approved clinical trials. There are training programs that will help you develop your skills while we all wait on psilocybin to make its way through the FDA approval process. Fluence training is well-known and has lots of trainings and workshops you can attend.
• Can you speak to Microdosing of psilocybin and microdosing in general? 
• Many people would say that they learned about microdosing from reading James Fadiman. I suggest finding him on podcasts, articles, etc as a good resource.
• Are there any resources healing ancestral and generational trauma through psychedelics? 
• I might suggest following Chacruna (articles, events, etc) and perhaps Bioneers. 
• Are there any negative outcomes using psilocybin for end of life treatment?
• There are certainly adverse effects reported during a psilocybin session, such as anxiety, nausea, and physical discomfort. But do you mean long-term outcomes? I have not read about any negative long-term outcomes following psilocybin-assisted therapy for end of life, of course all we have to go on right now is relatively small samples in controlled clinical trials that include a LOT of psychotherapeutic support (not “real-world” use).
• Are the quotes in your presentation from people who were actively in their dying process? 
• Yes, the quotes in the presentation were from individuals diagnosed with a terminal illness (mostly cancer) and completed one or two psilocybin sessions.
• Can you speak to the effectiveness of the serotonergic action of MDMA, in association to the therapeutic work?
• I’ve attached a short review article that touches a bit on this question.
• I am curious as to why research is seemingly specific to the BIPOC community? 
• Most of the current clinical research with MDMA does NOT include many folks from BIPOC communities. Clinical study samples are largely White. This is certainly a problem with current research and is why organizations like MAPS are taking extra steps to prioritize the training of therapists from BIPOC communities — so that we can be working towards racial equity in access to psychedelic therapy once it becomes legally available.
• Does psilocybin help with fixed delusions? 
• I am not sure! Johns Hopkins University is leading the research right now with psilocybin and has some interesting studies planned. I would suggest keeping an eye on the research they are producing.
• How high of a dose are “high dose sessions”?
• For psilocybin, a “high dose” might be 4-5 grams of dried mushrooms. In clinical studies, they are extracting psilocybin or psilocyn, so the amounts reported in journal articles are different, but somewhat equivalent to 4-5 grams dried weight.
• Can you speak to addiction? Lack of D2 receptors create lack of communication between cave woman/man brain, sets off craving with no ability to turn it off. If you are stimulating any craving how is that taking care of the brain. Addiction is brain disease. There is no cure. I assume may be good for the mental health aspect. No prefrontal cortex activity. 
• I might adopt the contrary perspective that addiction is not a brain disease. I believe there exist other models that better capture the problem of addiction. I’ve attached two articles that speak to Ibogaine for opioid dependence and detox. You can also keep track of ongoing studies with psilocybin for various substance use problems (especially alcohol, nicotine, and cocaine) on www.clinicaltrials.gov
• Do malpractice insurance carriers treat MDMA therapists kindly?
• I do not believe so. There is no MDMA therapy right now outside of approved clinical trials. I do know there is a national professional committee forming that will try to lobby insurance carriers to cover MDMA therapy/therapists once it is legally available. We are not there yet!

Resources:

• Certification possibilities available at Pratigroup.org
• List of different opportunities: https://www.psychedelicexperience.net/c/where-to-go-for-psychedelic-therapy-training-in-2021/
• How Ayahuasca can help heal trauma in the African American community: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXCQoK5aKAM

We are very thankful to have your support and attendance. Please let me know if you have any questions!