Australian-first psychedelic-assisted therapy trial for terminally ill patients shows improved quality of life

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A small psychedelic-assisted therapy trial shows rapid and sustained reductions in depression and anxiety, while improving overall quality of life.

Transcript

00:00So they were given a synthetic version of a compound that's found in magic mushrooms

00:07called cecylaban.

00:09It's given in a tablet form, and its effects can last for around six hours.

00:14And for that time, they are in what's called a dosing room, which is set up to be a relaxing,

00:20calm, dark space.

00:22Special music is playing, and the therapists, the researchers here, they were in the room

00:28with them for the whole time, just to support them when intense feelings arose.

00:34It can be a really emotional experience, and a lot of people process things from their past.

00:41But the dosing cannot be used on its own.

00:44It has to be done in conjunction with psychotherapy before and afterwards.

00:49And that's where the patients really work through what they experienced whilst under the effects

00:55of the psychedelic.

00:56How did it improve their mental well-being?

00:59Yeah, so the people in this trial were all in the advanced stages of terminal illnesses.

01:05So it helped them face their mortality with a bit more acceptance and peace.

01:11A lot of them can feel trapped in feelings of protest and anger, but this allowed them

01:18to kind of be a bit more present, enjoy their final time with their family.

01:25And interestingly, some people were able to look back in their past and find forgiveness

01:30about certain things like fractured relationships.

01:34One participant in the trial was Melbourne man Michael Quinn, a former builder who was diagnosed

01:41with prostate cancer and died at age 74.

01:45His wife Pat spoke to the ABC about how this trial helped him cope with feelings of panic

01:51and anxiety about dying.

01:53Here's Pat.

01:54He said after the treatment, he might feel like that for a little while, but he could come

02:02back and he said he, you know, the sun was out and life was good.

02:06That it did, it changed him from that perspective.

02:10I'm not quite sure how, but that's what he'd written in his journal.

02:16So Pat said Michael participated not only to help himself cope, but he really wanted

02:21to advance the science here and hopefully allow this treatment to be accessible to more people

02:26in the future.

02:27Yeah, Paige, how can this therapy be extended to more people?

02:32So right now it's very expensive.

02:34It can cost people tens of thousands of dollars to do this.

02:38That's because it's pretty labour intensive.

02:40It requires multiple therapists to be a part of the dosing and all the therapy.

02:47So the researchers at St Vincent's, they are hoping that the next trials could possibly be

02:52done in a group setting where multiple people go through all of this together.

02:58That would bring the cost down a bit and make it more accessible to people.

03:02It's worth noting that their trial was only on 35 people, so fairly small, but very promising

03:08results in an area where there has been some shunning by mainstream academics of psychedelic

03:14assisted therapy, but we're certainly seeing a lot of encouraging results now.

03:18that people feel like they can.

03:23So, we're here at St Vincent's end pt.

03:25All right.

03:27We've seen the elements here.

03:27The St Vincent.

03:28All right.

03:28We're here at St Vincent.

03:30All right.

03:31We're here at St Vincent.

03:32Okay.

03:33All right.

03:34All right.

03:35All right.

03:36All right.

03:36So, let's go?

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