Stanford Center for Precision
Mental Health and Wellness
PROJECTS
Precision Strategies for Novel and Exploratory Therapeutics
The Doors of Precision:
Personalizing psychedelics based on brain circuits and experiences
RBRAIN - MDMA
We know little about exactly how MDMA – ‘ecstasy’ – impacts the human brain in real-time and how brain changes relate to the experience of MDMA. In this study, we acquire neuroimaging brain scans immediately following doses of MDMA versus placebo, in a novel mechanistic trial design with healthy individuals. We also acquire detailed information about the individual experiences of each participant so as to connect brain changes to experience. Data from this study is vital to discovering how MDMA works in a more precise way and will inform its safe and personalized therapeutic use in future trials.
RBRAIN - KETAMINE
Although ketamine has promise as a therapeutic when used at sub-anesthetic doses, we know little about exactly how it impacts the human brain in real-time. In this study, we acquire neuroimaging brain scans immediately following infusions of ketamine versus placebo, in a novel mechanistic trial design with healthy individuals. We also acquire detailed information about the individual experiences of each participant so as to connect brain changes to experience. Data from this study is vital to discovering how ketamine works in a more precise way and will inform its safe and personalized therapeutic use in future trials.
Psilocybin
Personalizing psychedelics is a natural expansion of the goals of precision medicine in psychiatry to match treatment to people’s biology. This landmark study uses functional neuroimaging to look at the impact of psilocybin - ‘magic mushrooms’- on human brain circuits and whether this impact is sustained. The Palo Alto VA Medical Center is the only U.S. Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center carrying out a psilocybin treatment study in treatment resistant depression (TRD) in Veterans. Data from this study is vital to informing its safe and personalized therapeutic use in future trials.