06 Jan Two first-in-kind clinical trials explore psilocybin for substance misuse

By Katie Gerhards, UW–Madison

Three million people in the U.S have or have had opioid use disorder, and another 1.5 million people have dealt with methamphetamine misuse, within the last year alone.

But two new groundbreaking clinical trials out of the UW Transdisciplinary Center for Research in Psychoactive Substances (TCRPS), housed within the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy, aim to address these pressing issues with a promising psychoactive agent: psilocybin.

The drug has so far shown promising results for patients with mental health concerns such as depression and tobacco and alcohol misuse. Now, a UW–Madison research team is investigating the use of psilocybin to aid in decreasing opioid and methamphetamine misuse.

The team includes Paul Hutson — professor in the School’s Pharmacy Practice and Translational Research Division and founding director of the TCRPS — as well as Randall Brown and Christopher Nicholas, faculty in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. Read more …