DESIGNING THE NEXT GENERATION OF STUDIES OF PSYCHEDELICS FOR DIFFICULT TO TREAT DEPRESSION

The past decade has witnessed an veritable explosion of interest in psychdelics for treatemnt of depressive episodes that do not respond to standard antidepressant medications. This workshop will provide an overview of the current state of the clinical science and highlight important differences among the various psychedlics currently being investiigated. This workshop will highlight issues pertaining to functional unblinding and meaurement of duration of benefit (Dr, Fava), the neuroimaging correlates of psychedelic exposure (Dr. Sheline), the importance of psychotherapeutic support and acute and sustained outcomes (Dr. Suppes) and meaningful differences across psychdelic drugs in terms of the intial experience, the intenisty of psychoactive experience and research designs to study between-drug differences (Dr. Thase).

Learning Objective 1: The participant will be able to discuss the current state of the art of studies of psychelics for difficult to treat depression AND the important individual differencs among the various drugs being studied

Learning Objective 2: The participant will learn about the recommended Methods to minimize functional unblinding and to evaluate the persistence of therapeutic effects

References

Fava M. How should we design future mechanistic and/or efficacy clinical trials? Neuropsychopharmacology. 2024 Jan;49(1):197-204. doi: 10.1038/s41386023-01600-9. Epub 2023 May 26. PMID: 37237086; PMCID: PMC10700333 McIntyre RS, Kwan ATH, Mansur RB, Oliveira-Maia AJ, Teopiz KM, Maletic V, Suppes T, Stahl SM, Rosenblat JD. Psychedelics for the Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders: Interpreting and Translating Available Evidence and Guidance for Future Research. Am J Psychiatry. 2025 Jan 1;182(1):21-32. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.20230902. PMID: 39741444.