Description
While seemingly rare, sustained difficulties after psychedelic therapy do occur and may have a large negative impact on an individual’s wellbeing. Due to limitations in our understanding and assessment of adverse events, they are likely underreported in current literature. Systematic long-term monitoring and post-trial care are needed to explore and learn from these potential untoward outcomes. Furthermore, disentangling whether difficult experiences are harmful or potentially therapeutic is needed to increase our understanding of the nature of treatments involving psychedelics.
This project takes a mixed-methods approach to examining the lived experiences of patients, and others closely involved in psychedelic treatments (loved ones, caretakers, therapists), employing systematic review methods, qualitative research techniques, and statistical analysis. It also aims to create a better understanding of the delicate balance between benefits and possible (sustained) difficulties in long-term therapeutic change after participating in psychedelic treatments for different mental conditions. The doctoral candidate will also investigate effective methods of mitigating adverse effects from patient and therapist perspectives, addressing potential needs for meaning-making, spiritual support, and aftercare, ultimately informing guidelines for future trial design, real-world implementation, and improved therapeutic practices.
The DC will develop and employ qualitative measures to conduct individual and focus group interviews with patients, therapists, and caregivers in the context of different treatment contexts: both clinical trials and special access programs for therapeutic use of psychedelics. The DC will also develop tools to analyse existing quantitative datasets to explore therapeutic mechanisms and phenomenology of challenging and therapeutic experiences.
Location
University Center of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Groningen (Groningen, The Netherlands)
Supervisors
Dr. Joost J. Breeksema is a postdoc in the department of psychiatry and an interdisciplinary researcher. He coordinates qualitative research for PsyPal, and is one of the coordinators of INTEGRATE. He is also executive director of the OPEN Foundation, for which he organises the biannual ICPR conference, and the psychedelic therapist training program ADEPT.
Prof. Dr. Robert A. Schoevers is head of the psychiatry department, heads the Psynapse consortium, and runs multiple research projects investigating the safety, efficacy and therapeutic mechanisms of different psychedelics (esketamine, psilocybin) for the treatment of intractable mental disorders like treatment-resistant depression, existential distress and PTSD.
Secondments
Champalimaud Foundation (Lisbon, Portugal)
Supervisors: Prof. Albino Oliveira-Maia, Dr. Carolina Seybert
Purpose: To explore how researchers and clinicians investigate and address ethical and relational aspects within a psychedelic clinical trial context.
MIND (Amersfoort, The Netherlands)
Supervisor: Dr. Monique van der Eijnden
Purpose: To learn how patient representatives value psychedelic therapies, how they can be involved more closely, and what can be learned from them for how we provide these treatments optimally in the future.
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
Academic background:
A Master’s degree in psychology, psychiatry, medicine, anthropology, sociology, or another related field.
Strong foundation in qualitative research methods.
Research experience:
Experience with qualitative research methods, and with conducting and analysing in-depth, semi-structured interviews and focus groups.
Experience with qualitative data analysis software.
Familiarity with statistical analysis of psychometric data.
Technical and analytical skills:
Proficiency with qualitative and quantitative data collection, statistical analysis, and the use of relevant software (e.g., R, SPSS, MAXQDA, nVivo, ATLAS.TI etc).
Ability to synthesize findings across qualitative and quantitative levels.
Personal attributes:
Strong motivation to pursue translational research bridging molecular findings with clinical psychiatry.
Excellent analytical thinking, problem-solving, and ability to perform independent research.
Fluency in written and spoken English; fluency in Dutch is a particular asset, as part of the work involves interviewing participants in the Netherlands.
Genuine interest in understanding patient experiences, and capacity of quickly establishing rapport.
Ability to work with vulnerable patients (such as people with depression or in palliative care).
Additional desirable qualifications:
Prior publication(s) or conference presentation(s) in the field of biological psychiatry or psychopharmacology.