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.