Psilocybin Therapy for Psychological Distress in Palliative Care Patients

Relieving serious health-related suffering for patients in palliative and end-of-life care, be it physical, psychological, social, or spiritual, is a global ethical responsibility.

However, the profound psycho-emotional and existential distress entailed by such suffering, despite often being an enormous burden for both patients and their loved ones, remains a field largely overlooked by health care providers and the scientific community.

Those people may develop mood or anxiety disorder for which neither non-pharmacological nor pharmacological interventions exist. In this context, we believe it is now time to target these unmet needs in the palliative care population.

We want to initiate a paradigm shift at the boundaries between palliative care, psychiatry, psychology, neuroscience, and spiritual care.

Our starting point is the preliminary results being reported for administration of psilocybin, the main psychoactive compound of so-called psychedelic mushrooms, in patients with depression.

The objective of our project is thus to examine the clinical effect of a cutting-edge, individualised and patient-centred, open and standardised Psilocybin Therapy, addressing these unmet needs of patients in palliative care.

We will show high quality evidence via a multi-centre Randomised Clinical Trial of the value of our therapeutic model in patients (and for the following four conditions: COPD, Atypical Parkinsonian Disorders, ALS, and Multiple Sclerosis), their loved ones and care providers, in a diverse sample of the European population, in addition to better understand the mechanisms of therapeutic change of our model.

Finally, our project will establish a sustainable, multi-disciplinary, ecosystem of key European stakeholders jointly contributing to the medical use of psychedelic research and innovation, paving the way towards an ethical and cost-effective deployment of such a new line of care for patients in European palliative care service providers.