The Harm Reduction and Mental Health Project
Effects of Psilocybin on Anxiety and Psychosocial Distress in Advanced Cancer Patients
Presented by Stephen Ross, MD
The talk will describe a justification to use psilocybin as a potential treatment for the anxiety and existential distress associated with advanced cancer. The talk will focus on palliative care therapy for psychological distress with an emphasis on spiritual interventions in improving mental health in end-of-life treatment as well as a review of psilocybin including: definitions, classification, phenomenology, chemistry, pharmacology, neurobiology, safety profile, addictive liability, and clinical research data in terminal cancer. The talk will conclude with a discussion of the NYU Psilocybin Cancer Project and its current status.
Dr. Stephen Ross is an assistant professor of psychiatry at the NYU School of Medicine. He directs the Division of Alcoholism and Drug abuse at Bellevue Hospital and is the associate director of the NYU addiction psychiatry fellowship. Dr. Ross did his undergraduate training at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in the Biological Basis of Behavior, received his MD from the UCLA School of Medicine, and completed general psychiatry training at Columbia University & the New York State Psychiatric Institute, as well as addiction psychiatry fellowship training at NYU. Dr. Ross has received 8 teaching awards regarding education of medical students, general psychiatry residents, and addiction psychiatry fellows. His research interests include: personality disorders, co-occurring disorders, music therapy, and hallucinogens. He is the principal investigator of the NYU Psilocybin Cancer Project.
When: October 31, 2008; 3:00-4:30 PM
Where: New York University, 6 Washington Place, Room 551, NYC
The members of the Mental Health and Harm Reduction Project organizing committee are:
Michele Stocknoff, LMSW (mstocknoff@hotmail.com)
Kathryn Grooms, LMSW (kathryn@kathryngrooms.com)
Scott Kellogg, PhD (scott.kellogg@nyu.edu)
