ASU researchers at the Brain, Epigenetics, and Altered States Research Lab are harnessing the power of psychedelics for the benefit of mental health treatments.
Once considered taboo, the lab explores how psychedelics may offer therapeutic benefits and provide insights into a new paradigm for epigenetic research.
The BEAR Lab works at the intersection of understanding the biological pathways underlying mental health, symptom presentation and novel treatments.
“Overall, it’s really about improving the biological foundation in mental health treatment, research (and) understanding,” Candace Lewis, the laboratory director of the BEAR Lab and a professor with a joint appointment between the School of Life Sciences and the Department of Psychology, said.
The BEAR Lab was driven to explore psychedelics as a potential treatment for some mental health conditions due to their experiential impacts on the individual.
With the rate of mental health disorders on the rise among adolescents, the lab is hopeful to be on the brink of a more effective treatment paradigm, Lewis said.
Psychedelics have been implemented in therapeutic contexts, and though there is variation in procedures, typical psychedelic therapy sessions consist of preparation and psychoeducation, a dosing session, therapeutic support and integration.
The individual is educated on the psychedelic compound and builds rapport with the therapist. Then, the dose of the psychedelic is administered with therapeutic support. After the dosing session, there is a period of integration and reflection where the individual can speak to and unpack the meaning of their experience with the therapist.
“Where we’re at in the field right now is (that) psilocybin, the active compound in magic mushrooms, has gone through successful phase three trials for depression and for alcohol use disorder,” Lewis said. “MDMA, the active compound in Ecstasy or Molly, has gone through successful phase three trials for treating PTSD.”
The researchers are excited to see current studies such as MDMA for PTSD in veterans. They hope this will be a “really great tool” for people who are resistant to first-line antidepressants, Ada Skinner, a research assistant at the BEAR Lab and a senior studying psychology and neuroscience, said.
The lab is able to work with these psychedelics in multiple models and multiple ways, said Taena Hanson, a graduate research assistant at the BEAR Lab and a graduate student studying psychology.
The impact of psychedelics also has a biological basis in the epigenome.
“The epigenome is a regulation system of genetic expression, and by looking upstream, we’re able to look at alterations across all of the systems and how those can be related to both symptom presentation and treatment response,” Lewis said.
Understanding the impact psychedelics may have on the epigenome provides a new lens for novel treatments.
“We’re interested in how experiences like chronic stress and trauma alter the biology that leads to symptoms, and in that same framework, understanding that experiences have the ability to change us at the epigenetic level in a way that changes behavior,” Lewis said. “We should be able to flip that model on its head to develop more precise and effective treatments. So if trauma is changing us molecularly, then what is the type of experience that’s healing?”
The BEAR Lab is currently working on research endeavors to collect data correlating the recreational use of psychedelics with behavior in the Psychedelics and Mental Health Survey. Skinner said the objective is to see if trends in clinical studies of psychedelic use exist in recreational users.
Researchers in the BEAR Lab are optimistic about the future of psychedelics research and the positive impacts it may have on individuals.
“It’s exciting to see that something that wasn’t being utilized is now hopefully being studied and hopefully being utilized for a lot of different people to improve their livelihoods,” Hanson said.
Edited by Henry Smardo, Senna James, Sophia Braccio and Pippa Fung.
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John TamayoSci-Tech Reporter
John Tamayo is a science and technology reporter in his first semester with The State Press. He is a senior majoring in Physics and Philosophy.
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