Description
Psychedelic therapies have re-emerged as a promising treatment for several neuropsychiatric disorders, but wide variation in practice leaves open questions about the role of psychotherapy and optimal treatment procedures.
This project aims to address concerns regarding the delivery of psychotherapy in psychedelic treatments that may hinder regulatory approval and clinical implementation. Better defined and structured psychological interventions are urgently needed to evaluate safety and optimized outcomes. The doctoral candidate (DC) will investigate the safety and effectiveness of therapeutic interventions in the clinical use of psychedelic substances.
First, a systematic literature review will identify psychotherapeutic interventions based on therapy manuals used across disorders and substances, including MDMA, psilocybin, LSD, DMT/ayahuasca, ibogaine, and ketamine. Second, safety aspects such as therapeutic boundaries, risk mitigation, set and setting, professional backgrounds, patient and clinician perspectives, and ethical considerations for informed consent will be investigated. The DC will apply quantitative and qualitative methods to analyses treatment material (e.g. therapy sessions) from the PsyPal clinical trial to identify psychotherapeutic techniques and mechanisms of change.
Location
Champalimaud Foundation (CF), Clinical Centre and Champalimaud Research, Neuropsychiatry Unit; Instituto Universitário de Ciências Psicológicas, Sociais e da Vida (ISPA), Lisbon, Portugal. CF and ISPA are legally linked through a collaboration agreement. The PhD Candidate enrolled in degree programs at CF receives their degree from ISPA.
Supervisors
Prof. Dr. Albino J. Oliveira-Maia is a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, director of the Neuropsychiatry Unit at CF, and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at NOVA Medical School (Universidade NOVA de Lisboa). AOM and his team are working on uncovering pathways to mental disorders, including depression and cognitive dysfunction in patients with cancer, through competitively funded international multicentre studies, including PsyPal to investigate psilocybin therapy for psychological distress in palliative care patients.
Dr. Carolina Seybert is a clinical psychologist and researcher with doctoral training in Psychotherapy recently involved in clinical trials with psychedelics and significant publications for the field of psychedelic research. She is the lead therapist at the Portuguese centre of the PsyPal clinical trial.
Secondments
Institute: Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Berlin, Germany)
Supervisors: Dr. med. Dimitris Repantis
Purpose: To study ethical specificity in the context of psychedelic treatments and aspects of informed consent to understand risk mitigation in psychedelic psychotherapies.
Institute: Alithos Health (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA)
Supervisors: Mr. George Goldsmith
Purpose: To work with a pharmaceutical company to understand the role of therapy development and inclusion of patient perspectives. Alithos Health is a collaborative research lab with health and digital biomarker databases, and the expertise and infrastructure to develop and deploy AI and machine learning models.
General eligibility criteria
- The position is open to candidates of any nationality (European and non-European) who fulfil the requirements set for the Doctoral Candidates (DCs) funded by Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions.
- Applicants must hold a Master’s degree in a relevant academic field, allowing enrolment in a PhD program at the hiring beneficiary.
- Applicants must not previously have been awarded a PhD degree.
- Applicants must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country in which the DC project for which they are applying is based for more than 12 months in the 3 years prior to recruitment. This excludes short stays such as holidays, compulsory national service or time spent as part of a procedure for obtaining refugee status under the Geneva Convention.
- Applicants must be willing to undertake secondments at another institute of the network during the DC project, including at institutes in other countries.
- Applicants must be able to demonstrate their ability to understand and express themselves in both written and spoken English at a level that is sufficiently high to fully benefit from the network training (C1/C2 level).
- Applicants are expected to be motivated to work in the field of psychedelic therapy.
- Applicants are expected to work independently, well-structured and collaboratively in a multidisciplinary consortium.
Additional eligibility criteria
A Master’s degree in psychology, medicine, neuroscience, or another related field.
Experience with psychotherapy process methods is helpful but not required.
Interest in mental health, psychology, psychiatry and psychedelics.
Understanding of psychometric data and analysis.
Ability to work with vulnerable patients (such as people with depression or in palliative care).
Strong teamwork skills.
Portuguese is helpful but not required.