Bringing Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy from Psychiatry to Palliative Care

Outcomes 1. Attendees will be able to identify research gaps pertaining to palliative care that exist in the current psychiatric contexts of psychedelic assisted therapy.2. Attendees will be able to evaluate current strategies aimed at addressing research gaps pertaining to palliative care that exist in the current psychiatric contexts of psychedelic assisted therapy. Key Message Current ongoing trials pf Psychedelic Assisted Therapy are integrating palliative care core principles with a goal of addressing palliative care-oriented constructs beyond limited traditional psychiatric diagnoses, offering PAT in outpatient palliative care and hospice settings, enrolling frail adults typically excluded from psychiatric studies, and using community resources to recruit diverse patients into trials. Introduction Emerging evidence from pilot studies and small randomized controlled trials suggests that psilocybin-assisted therapy (PAT) may improve anxiety, depression and existential distress in persons facing serious illness. However, the psychiatric setting in which these trials have been conducted limits generalization to and implementation in palliative care (PC) populations. Methods Our goal through this interactive session is to review core design elements of clinical trials of PAT that have expanded beyond the psychiatric paradigm and describe opportunities and challenges for future research to integrate PAT within existing PC delivery models. Results We will detail three ongoing trials of psilocybin led by palliative care clinician researchers for patients with life-limiting illness, focusing on a core element for each trial: 1) Trial #1 utilizes palliative care interdisciplinary team members to address “total pain” earlier in the course of a disease, focuses on the treatment of existential distress, and integrates spiritually-integrated psychedelic therapy into routine outpatient palliative care; 2) Trial #2 incorporates PAT into hospice care to address demoralization in terminally ill patients 3) Trial #3 will address the lack of representation in psychedelic studies by integrating community informed strategies to ensure participants are racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically representative of patients facing serious cancer in the US. Conclusions Current ongoing trials are integrating palliative care core principles with a goal of addressing palliative care-oriented constructs beyond psychiatric diagnoses (e.g., “total pain” and existential distress), offering PAT in outpatient palliative care and hospice settings, enrolling frail adults typically excluded from psychiatric studies, and using community resources to recruit diverse patients into trials. Keywords Managing Suffering and Distress Existential / Humanities / Spirituality / Religion