Wednesday, February 27th, 2023 from 12:00-1:30pm PST

The use of ayahuasca, an indigenous brew from the Amazonian basin with psychedelic properties, has increased worldwide and its therapeutic value has been investigated. Dr. Nicole Galvão-Coelho and colleagues at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, conducted the first randomized placebo-controlled trial with ayahuasca in 29 patients with treatment-resistant depression. The results suggest a significant antidepressant effect of ayahuasca with rapid onset, just one day after a single session with ayahuasca. In conversation with psychiatric pharmacist Dr. Kelan Thomas, Dr. Galvão-Coelho will also discuss biomarkers for mental health and how these may be affected by ayahuasca to improve psychiatric symptoms.

Kelan Thomas, PharmD, MS, is an associate professor and psychiatric pharmacist with outpatient behavioral health practice sites in San Francisco and Oakland. He completed undergraduate chemistry/pharmacology at Duke University, a PharmD at UC San Francisco, and a Clinical Research MS at University of Michigan. He has completed clinical pharmacy residencies at University of Michigan and University of Southern California. His research is related to psychopharmacology, adverse drug reactions and pharmacogenomics with the goal of optimizing mental health pharmacotherapy for psychiatric clients. More recently he completed the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research training program and started collaborating with psychedelic-assisted therapy clinical trials at UC San Francisco. He is also part of the Chacruna Chronicles editorial team, and curates the “Science Sunday” social media series with a psychedelic science publication posted weekly.

Nicole Galvão-Coelho is a Brazilian biologist and has PhD. in Psychobiology. She is a professor of Department of Physiology and Behavior in Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte- Brazil, adjunct professor at NICM Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University-Australia and advisory member of Psychae Institute. Professor Nicole has scientific interesting in validate molecular biomarkers and new treatments for mood disorders, and in the last ten years she has been working with psychedelics for mental health. She was part of the team that undertook the first randomised controlled study of ayahuasca for treatment resistant depression and has led several clinical and pre-clinical studies relating to ayahuasca/DMT for major depression.

What do you know about the neurobiological effects of ayahuasca in depression?