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Psilocybin Therapy for Psychological Distress in Palliative Care Patients

Project description

Addressing overlooked dimensions of palliative care

Relieving serious health-related suffering for patients in palliative and end-of-life care is an ethical responsibility, encompassing physical, psychological, social, and spiritual dimensions. However, this aspect of care often remains overlooked by healthcare providers and the scientific community. Patients and their loved ones face mood and anxiety disorders with no effective interventions available. With this in mind, an EU-funded PsyPal project draws from trials with psilocybin to develop individualised Psilocybin Therapy. Through a multi-centre Randomised Clinical Trial, it aims to alleviate suffering in COPD, Atypical Parkinsonian Disorders, ALS, and Multiple Sclerosis patients. This approach integrates psychiatry, psychology, neuroscience, and spiritual care, fostering a sustainable, multi-disciplinary ecosystem to advance ethical and cost-effective psychedelic research in European palliative care.

Objective

Relieving serious health-related suffering for patients in palliative and end-of-life care, be it physical, psychological, social, or spiritual, is a global ethical responsibility. However, the profound psycho-emotional and existential distress entailed by such suffering, despite often being an enormous burden for both patients and their loved ones, remains a field largely overlooked by health care providers and the scientific community. Those people may develop mood or anxiety disorder for which neither non-pharmacological nor pharmacological interventions exist. In this context, we believe it is now time to target these unmet needs in the palliative care population. We want to initiate a paradigm shift at the boundaries between palliative care, psychiatry, psychology, neuroscience, and spiritual care. Our starting point is the preliminary results being reported for administration of psilocybin, the main psychoactive compound of so-called ‘psychedelic mushrooms’, in patients with depression. The objective of our project is thus to examine the clinical effect of a cutting-edge, individualised and patient-centred, open and standardised Psilocybin Therapy, addressing these unmet needs of patients in palliative care. We will show high quality evidence via a multi-centre Randomised Clinical Trial of the value of our therapeutic model in patients (and for the following four conditions: COPD, Atypical Parkinsonian Disorders, ALS, and Multiple Sclerosis), their loved ones and care providers, in a diverse sample of the European population, in addition to better understand the mechanisms of therapeutic change of our model. Finally, our project will establish a sustainable, multi-disciplinary, ecosystem of key European stakeholders jointly contributing to the medical use of psychedelic research and innovation, paving the way towards an ethical and cost-effective deployment of such a new line of care for patients in European palliative care service providers.

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) HORIZON-HLTH-2023-DISEASE-03

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Coordinator

ACADEMISCH ZIEKENHUIS GRONINGEN
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 753 913,75
Address
HANZEPLEIN 1
9713 GZ Groningen
Netherlands

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Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 753 913,75

Participants (19)

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