Taking a Trip with SCI (Episode 69)
57m
·
U2FP CureCast
·
The research of psychedelics as a therapeutic for anxiety, depression, and PTSD has gained a lot of traction over the last decade. Given their potent effects on the nervous system, what are the unique benefits and possible side effects of psychedelics for the SCI population? And further, what is their potential to elicit functional recovery? If you ask the community, it doesn’t take long to find anecdotal evidence that the benefits go beyond just the psychological realm. Read Jim Harris’ account in Outside Magazine, as an example (https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/exploration-survival/psychedelics-research-paralysis-treatment-jim-harris/). In this episode, Matthew and Jason speak with Jessica Nielson to explore the potential psychedelics may hold for the SCI community. Jessica is an SCI and Bioinformatics researcher at the University of Minnesota. She is also the Executive Director of Psychedelic Society of Minnesota. They discuss psychedelic research and where it could cross paths with spinal cord injury. They also discuss the hypothesized mechanism of psychedelics and whether they might or might not bring about some of the range of changes that SCI self-experimenters have reported. Guest Bio Jessica Nielsen is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, and Core Faculty in the Institute for Health Informatics at the University of Minnesota, and is the Executive Director of the Psychedelic Society of Minnesota. Jessica completed doctoral training in the lab of Dr. Oswald Steward at UC Irvine focusing on animal models of spinal cord injury, and did postdoctoral training with Dr. Adam Ferguson at UCSF, where she developed a preclinical database of SCI studies that seeded the Open Data Commons for SCI. During her time at UCSF, she began conducting research on the psychedelic tea, ayahuasca, to investigate whether it might be an alternative treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). She is currently conducting computational psychiatry research to identify more precise phenotypes of PTSD from large clinical data repositories, and is Principal Investigator of the first psilocybin clinical trial at the University of Minnesota. She is currently co-developing a new survey study around how people with SCI respond to psychedelics, to inform the community about risks and benefits to promote harm reduction as the hype around psychedelics reaches a broad range of patient populations interested in using psychedelics to alleviate suffering.
The episode Taking a Trip with SCI (Episode 69) from the podcast U2FP CureCast has a duration of
57:26. It was first published
More episodes from U2FP CureCast
Spinal Media (Episode 103)
Our guest today is Leann Rees. Leanne is a physical therapist with a PhD from Melbourne, Australia. She’s been in the business of rehab and reintegration for 30 years, 20 of which were spent in spinal cord injury. Leanne’s doctoral thesis examined many aspects and consequences of the media portrayal of spinal cord injury and that is what we’re talking today. This is a fascinating discussion about the historical and contemporary portrayals of SCI and how that portrayal influences the SCI Community and general population. More info: https://u2fp.org/get-educated/curecast/episode-103.html
Bladder Chatter (Episode 102)
Today we’re talking with Dennis Bourbeau. Dennis is a highly regarded clinical and academic researcher in the area of bowel/bladder/and sexual function. He works for the Louis Stokes Veterans Administration Hospital and the Metro Health County Hospital in Cleveland, OH. He’s also a faculty member at Case Western Reserve University. Dennis has graciously agreed to come back to chat with us a second time and give us an update on his work, specifically in bladder control devices. We also discuss the critical importance of connecting with and understanding the patient population, the process of getting a device to the market, and much more. More info: https://u2fp.org/get-educated/curecast/episode-102.html
Father of Stim (Episode 101)
Today we are talking to V. Reggie Edgerton, a Professor Emeritus of Nuerobiology at UCLA and co-founder of the spinal stimulation company, SpineX. Reggie Edgerton is a giant in the field of neuromodulation. Some have called him the father of spinal stimulation, and his influence can be found in... More info: https://u2fp.org/get-educated/curecast/episode-101.html
Milestones (Episode 100)
Today we are celebrating our 100th episode of U2FP’s CureCast podcast! No guest would be more appropriate for that celebration than Kate Willette. Kate and Mathew started the podcast 6 years ago and she co-hosted the first 34 episodes. Kate also wrote the book “Don’t Call it a Miracle” which is required reading for anyone with a spinal cord injury. Kate was dragged into the world of advocacy when her husband, Bruce, became a quadriplegic in 2001 and she refused to sit idly by. Being an educator and writer by training, she took the bull by the horns and demystified the science of spinal cord injury, giving our community tools for advocacy. More info: https://u2fp.org/get-educated/curecast/episode-100.html
Your Voice Here - part 1 (Episode 99)
Today we are bringing you part 1 of the “Your Voice Here” series. This collection of interviews was recorded during U2FP’s 2023 Science and Advocacy Symposium in Minneapolis. In this episode, you’ll hear from Physical Therapist, PhD and Researcher, Leanne Rees; Neuroscience student Jason Biundo; and Motivational speaker and Onward Marketing Consultant, Scott Chesney. We cover a variety of topics in this episode, among them: Leanne’s research on the media portrayal of SCI; how Jason’s climbing accident focused his interest in neuroscience to spinal cord injury research translation; and Scott’s wisdom from 38 years of lived experience with an SCI. In the way of topic warning, we do briefly discuss suicidal ideation in our third conversation with Scott, if that is something you would prefer to avoid. I hope you enjoy hearing these conversations as much as I enjoyed being a part of them. More info: https://u2fp.org/get-educated/curecast/episode-99.html