Symposium
Plenary Hall
Plenary Hall
Monday, June 16, 02:40 PM – 03:55 PM
Symposium 4: Psychedelics: From Bench to Clinic
The potential value of psychedelic compounds and their derivatives in the treatment of psychiatric disorders is becoming more and more established. Concurrently, understanding their mechanism of action and how preclinical effects are translated into therapeutic action is a critically important challenge. Meeting this challenge is the objective of this symposium via presentations that traverse preclinical studies, translational rodent models, and clinical trials.
1) Building on research in her laboratory, Gabriella Gobbi (Neurobiology Psychiatry Unit, McGill University, Montreal) will discuss the intriguing question of the distinct behavioral and pharmacological effects of psilocybin and lisuride. Even though psilocybin and lisuride share the same affinity for 5-HT2A receptors, lisuride does not have psychedelic properties. By studying different animal behaviors and conducting in vivo neuronal electrophysiology recordings in the medial prefrontal cortex and substantia nigra, Dr. Gobbi will unveil the distinct pharmacological properties of psilocybin and lisuride.
2) Bernard Lerer (Hadassah BrainLabs Center for Psychedelic Research, Hebrew University, Jerusalem) will present translational approaches to the use of psychedelics for the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). There is growing interest in the potential of psychedelic compounds for therapy-resistant OCD. Using screening tests and high-face validity translational models in rodents, Lerer and his group have shown long-term efficacy for a single treatment with psilocybin (Brownstein et al., 2024), which he will present. He will explore the greater efficacy of psilocybin-containing psychedelic mushroom extract, discuss imaging findings relevant to striatal-cortical pathways, and present findings with a novel, non-hallucinogenic psychedelic-derived compound.
3) Hideaki Tani (Department of Neuropsychiatry, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan) will discuss the clinical applications of psychedelics. He will overview the latest evidence of psychedelics in clinical trials, particularly psilocybin therapy for depression. Additionally, he will outline the neuroimaging findings of psychedelics, supporting the mechanisms of action of psychedelics. He will also discuss the upcoming psilocybin study in Asia, which will commence at his university soon. This presentation is expected to provide insight into the clinical use of psychedelics for psychiatric disorders
03:05 PM – 03:30 PM
25 min
25 min