Press Releases

Free Psychedelic Harm Reduction Course Offered byPsychedelic.Support and Project New Day in Celebration of Psychedelic Therapy Awareness Month

Published: April 27, 2021

Mayor Donna Meyers declares April 2021 Psychedelic Therapy Awareness Month in Santa Cruz, CA, and the Founders of Psychedelic Support and Project New Day are offering a free psychedelic harm reduction course in celebration.

Santa Cruz became the third city to decriminalize psychedelic plants and fungi in January 2020. The city council requested local organizations to offer public education and outreach. “Our free psychedelic courses are just one example of the work we are doing to promote safe and responsible psychedelic use. Through our platform, we connect individuals with experienced health professionals and support groups to maximize the potential benefits of psychedelic medicines and reduce risks,” said Allison Feduccia, PhD, Co-Founder of Psychedelic Support.

Psychedelic Support is one of the leading educators and psychedelic medicine resources offering courses and a comprehensive directory of licensed health professionals providing mental health services for psychedelic medicine and integration nationwide. The sister nonprofit organization, Project New Day, Founded by Mike Sinyard of Specialized Bicycles, is focused on psychedelic treatments and services for addiction recovery.

Whether you're a harm reductionist, clinician, or psychonaut, mitigating risk across psychedelic settings is crucial. That is why Psychedelic Support and Project New Day are offering this free harm reduction course to teach people what to expect, considerations for psychedelic journeys, and how to increase safety around psychedelic substances. The course covers tips for best practices and integration, and ways to get support if a challenging experience arises.

Dr. Feduccia went on to say, "Psychedelics are powerful medicines that have been used with intention and respect by many traditional cultures since prehistory. As modern-day decriminalization initiatives increase access to psychedelics, the use should likewise be intentional and respectful. Our harm reduction course provides tried and true best practices used in clinical trials, ceremonial contexts, and festivals. Our aim in offering this free course is to increase the positive impact of psychedelics, reduce harm, and sustainably foster the expansion of decriminalization so that psychedelics may help individuals and humankind heal and positively transform."

“Riding the Wave: Principles of Psychedelic Harm Reduction“ will give participants take home tangible skills in peer to peer support, harm reduction strategies, and psychedelic substance information. Access all of Psychedelic Support’s FREE courses here

About Psychedelic Support

Psychedelic Support offers a directory of licensed health professionals and community groups that provide mental health services (online and in-person) related to psychedelic medicine and integration. Psychedelic Support advances psychedelic knowledge and practical skills through its education platform, featuring courses, workshops, and trainings taught by leading psychedelic researchers and practitioners.

About Project New Day

Project New Day exists to help people overcome addiction and actualize mental health through the responsible and legal use of psychedelics. We invest in research, treatment programs, and community-supported recovery and integration services. Project New Day is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that takes action to nurture and grow the responsible and legal use of psychedelic medicines to evoke wholeness, freedom, and fulfillment.

As Psychedelics Grow in Popularity, We Need to Understand the Risks

Published: April 19, 2021

New e-course from Psychedelic Support provides an evidence-based resource for clinicians, healthcare workers, and anyone seeking to understand risks, contraindications, and best practices for safe psychedelic experiences.

Media Contact: Brad Burge

Today, psychedelic education platform Psychedelic Support announced the launch of its free e-course, Riding the Wave: Principles of Psychedelic Harm Reduction. The course provides a comprehensive overview of the principles of psychedelic harm reduction, the risks of using psychedelics, and how both users and mental health professionals can best prepare for psychedelic experiences.

Clinical trials are advancing rapidly into the therapeutic uses of psychedelics to treat a variety of mental illnesses, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and substance use disorders; and psychedelic decriminalization initiatives are advancing around the U.S. At the same time, media hype is increasing around microdosing, psilocybin mushroom retreats, and ayahuasca ceremonies. As a result, the need for evidence-based education on how to make the most of psychedelic experiences, and how to reduce their risks, is more pressing than ever before.

“As psychedelics gain in popularity, both in and beyond therapeutic settings, users and health professionals alike need a better understanding of how to ensure that their experiences are as safe as possible,” says Dr. Allison Feduccia, co-founder and CEO of Psychedelic Support. “Using psychedelics is not without risks, but if people are equipped with science-backed information they will be better informed to make safer decisions. We hope this course makes these best practices more widely accessible to meet the pace of this rapidly evolving field.”

Created by Psychedelic Support in collaboration with NEST Harm Reduction and Project New Day, the course brings together information and resources presented by leading harm reduction experts, therapists, and researchers. After completing the course, students will be able to:

Describe the principles of psychedelic harm reduction
Understand the potential adverse consequences of psychedelic use, and how risks vary across settings and individuals
Specify contraindications for each drug class, and identify common harms associated with altered states
Discuss harm reduction strategies, including how preparation and integration can help mitigate risks
Explain how clinicians can talk to clients about harm reduction within legal frameworks

“Riding the Wave: Principles of Psychedelic Harm Reduction” is just one of the self-paced e-courses offered by Psychedelic Support, which include:

Exploring Psychedelics: Discovery, Research, & Effects (free introductory course)
Foundations in MDMA: Safety, Therapeutic Applications & Research
Understanding Psilocybin: Effects, Neurobiology, and Therapeutic Approaches
MDMA and Psilocybin: Therapeutic Approaches, Safety, and Mechanisms

Psychedelic Support also provides leading-edge workshops to help practitioners advance their skills in the field of psychedelic medicine, including Building a Psychedelic Medicine Clinic (in collaboration with PRATI) and Ketamine-Assisted Therapy Training for Clinicians (in collaboration with Polaris Insight Center).

About Psychedelic Support

Article: View Online (open access)
Citation: Feduccia, A.A., Jerome, L., Mithoefer, M.C. et al. Discontinuation of medications classified as reuptake inhibitors affects treatment response of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. Psychopharmacology (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-020-05710-w

Study Shows MDMA-Assisted Therapy Less Effective for Patients Who Use Antidepressants

Published: January, 28 2021

New evidence shows that prior use of SSRIs may reduce the effectiveness of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD
Study finds that 75% of patients who used antidepressants still qualified for PTSD after treatment, compared with 36.4% of those who had not
Findings have implications for doctors prescribing SSRIs for PTSD if FDA approves MDMA-assisted therapy

Media Contact: Brad Burge

In December 2020, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) announced positive results from the first of its two Phase 3 trials of MDMA-assisted therapy for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), strengthening the outlook for U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval by 2023. Now, a new peer-reviewed analysis published in Psychopharmacology shows that MDMA-assisted therapy was less effective for patients who had recently used selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) to treat their PTSD symptoms.

The study found that 63.6% of participants who received MDMA-assisted therapy no longer met PTSD diagnostic criteria after treatment—unless they had been using antidepressants. Of those participants who tapered off their antidepressants to receive the therapy, only 25% no longer had PTSD. The finding has significant implications for PTSD patients seeking MDMA-assisted therapy in the future, given that at least 13.6% of US adults are prescribed antidepressants, according to the CDC.

“Given the encouraging results of early trials of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD, and the estimated 8 million adults in the U.S. alone who suffer from the condition, there’s likely to be extraordinary demand for the treatment once it’s approved,” says Allison Feduccia, Ph.D., study co-author and co-founder of the education platform Psychedelic Support. “Since it is a time- and cost-intensive treatment, patients may have a limited number of chances to utilize MDMA-assisted therapy. Our goal in sharing this new data is to give PTSD patients the best possible chance at successful treatment with this promising new breakthrough therapy.”

With MDMA still in Phase 3 trials, the SSRIs sertraline (Zoloft) and paroxetine (Paxil) are currently the only FDA-approved medications for PTSD. However, because they are known to reduce the effects of MDMA, patients must taper off these medications prior to receiving MDMA-assisted therapy.

The findings could have significant implications for PTSD patient care once MDMA-assisted therapy is approved for use, according to the study authors. These could include asking patients to go through a longer antidepressant tapering period prior to receiving MDMA-assisted therapy, and further educating patients still considering antidepressants on the impact on their potential eligibility for MDMA-assisted therapy, should they wish to consider it.

“These results will allow me and other clinicians to provide our PTSD patients with better information and realistic expectations for treatment with MDMA-assisted therapy,” says Veronika Gold, MFT, co-therapist on the MDMA clinical trial and co-founder of Polaris Insight Center. “In addition to awaiting the final results of Phase 3 clinical trials, we’ll need further research to learn more about how differences in tapering schedules or length of time on antidepressants might impact the effectiveness of this treatment.”

The study authors suggest several mechanisms for the negative impact of recent SSRI use on MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD, including: (1) the downregulation of binding sites (serotonin, dopamine, and/or norepinephrine) related to SSRI use; (2) reduced MDMA treatment-relevant increases in blood pressure in patients with recent SSRI use; and/or (3) the possibility of withdrawal symptoms from SSRIs reducing the effectiveness of MDMA-assisted therapy.

“By determining specific factors, such as antidepressant tapering, that impact the treatment response rate of MDMA-assisted therapy, clinicians can choose approaches that maximize symptom improvements and reduce the chance that patients will require follow-up treatments,” says Feduccia.

The new analysis was based on the previously published cumulative results of six Phase 2 clinical trials of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD, and published by Allison Feduccia, Ph.D. (Psychedelic Support), Lisa Jerome, Ph.D. (MAPS Public Benefit Corporation), Michael Mithoefer, M.D. (Medical University of South Carolina and MAPS Public Benefit Corporation), and Julie Holland, M.D. (Private Practice).

Due to the study’s small sample size, varying taper lengths, and the possibility that the taper group had more severe PTSD, the study’s results are preliminary. Nevertheless, the analysis showed a clear reduction in the effectiveness of MDMA-assisted therapy for patients who had used SSRIs and makes a strong case for further research based on the upcoming results of Phase 3 clinical trials.

For those interested in participating in an MDMA-assisted therapy clinical trial, Psychedelic Support recommends not tapering SSRIs until they are screened and enrolled in the studies. Any medication tapering should be done only in consultation with a clinician, so they can monitor for side effects or discontinuation symptoms.

About Psychedelic Support

Article: View Online (open access)
Citation: Feduccia, A.A., Jerome, L., Mithoefer, M.C. et al. Discontinuation of medications classified as reuptake inhibitors affects treatment response of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. Psychopharmacology (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-020-05710-w