Jeffrey Guss
VITA
Jeffrey Guss, MD is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and researcher with specializations in psychoanalytic therapy and the treatment of substance use disorders. He served as Co-Principal Investigator and Director of Therapist Training for the NYU School of Medicine’s study on Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy in the Treatment of Cancer Related Existential Distress.
Dr. Guss is interested in the integration of psychedelic therapies with contemporary psychoanalytic theory and is developing a therapy template for use in the psilocybin assisted therapy for Major Depressive Disorder. H has published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, Studies in Gender and Sexuality and Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society. He is an Instructor and Mentor with the California Institute of Integral Studies’ Center for Psychedelic Therapies and maintains a full time private practice.
The NYU School of Medicine Study on Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy for Treatment of Existential Distress in Cancer Patients: Study Structure, Therapist Training, Outcome Data; Short Film
Existential distress in reaction to a life-threatening illness is often undertreated and mistreated in western medicine. A randomized, placebo controlled clinical trial of psilocybin assisted therapy for treatment of existential distress in cancer patients was recently completed at NYU School of Medicine with Stephen Ross, MD, Principal Investigator and Drs. Anthony Bossis, PhD and Dr. Guss as Co-Principal Investigators. The results were published as “Rapid and Sustained Symptom Reduction following Psilocybin Treatment for Anxiety and Depression in Patients with Life-Threatening Cancer: A Randomized Controlled Trial” , published in The Journal of Psychopharmacology in December 2016.During his talk, Dr. Guss will describe the NYU study in detail, including the structure and content of the therapy sessions and the therapeutic platform used to support the medicine sessions. Subsequent to this, he will present outcome data from the study, and describe future studies that are in the planning stages.
