First Psilocybin/SCI Study (CureCast Episode 147)

Today's episode features Dr. Jill Wecht who is a Research Health Scientist at the Bronx VA and Devon Colbert, a retired firefighter and Navy Veteran who lives with a cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) and is an advocate/participant in SCI research. A while back, Devon proposed the idea for a clinical trial using psilocybin to Dr. Wecht and her colleague Dr. Noam Harel at the Bronx VA. When we heard that they were moving forward with potentially the first psilocybin trial in spinal cord injury (a safety trial), we reached out to schedule this interview. They are curious about the effect of psilocybin on mental health, but will also be collecting information about its effect on other functions. The hope is that it might have pro-regenerative effects that can warrant further investigation. We talk with them about the trial and the potential that psilocybin might hold as a treatment, both on its own and in combination with other interventions going forward. We learned a lot from the conversation and are excited to share it with you.