Pα+ Psychedelic Bulletin #183: UW Madison’s Psychedelic Symposium; MindMed Doses First Phase 3 Patient; Beckley’s IV Psilocin Readout; Psilocybin for COVID Clinicians

Reflecting on UW Madison’s Fourth Annual Psychedelic Symposium

Members of the Psychedelic Alpha team Josh Hardman and Noah Smith, as well as Editor-at-Large Graham Pechenik, had a great time attending the fourth annual UW Madison Psychedelic Symposium last month. The UW Madison psychedelics folks are fantastic hosts, and we particularly enjoyed an insight into their impressive suite of trials and dosing rooms.

The agenda of the Symposium itself was diverse, with speakers discussing topics including preclinical and clinical research, access pathways, medical system integration and credentialing, but also broader disciplines and themes like psychedelic humanities and social justice.

Here, we don’t provide a full recap of the conference, but instead touch on Chuck Raison’s talk and our tour of Usona Institute’s campus. (For a broader recap, consider listening to Datamonitor Healthcare’s podcast episode.)

Chuck Raison Reviews the State of the Field, Fads, and Functional Unblinding

Charles (Chuck) Raison, Professor of Psychiatry and Human Ecology at UW Madison, among other roles at Vail Health Behavioral Health Innovation Center and Usona Institute, gave a characteristically witty and insightful presentation on the ‘greatest hits’ of psychedelics clinical research originating outside of the UW system.

But, his presentation also offered a temperature check on the field. Indeed, in opening his presentation, he said, plainly: “This has not been a good year, overall.”

He discussed a debate at Psych Congress that took place a week or so prior, where he went toe-to-toe with prominent psychiatrist Steven Stahl (‘the most influential psychopharmacologist in the United States, and maybe the world’, Raison said) on the question: Are psychedelics a breakthrough or a foolish fad? The debate was well attended, with ‘well over a thousand people eagerly listening to every word’, according to the moderator, Rakesh Jain.

Stahl ‘put up a pretty good fight’, Raison said, ‘but I won!’ Cue the applause from the crowd in Madison. But it was close, Raison said, with around 43% of the audience landing on the class of drugs being a fad. The most prominent argument from his opponent was, ‘Why not wait a few years for these non-hallucinogenic psychedelics?’ That swayed a lot of people, Raison said, adding that he doesn’t think that would have swayed so many people a few years ago...