In this episode of the Psychedelic Medicine Podcast, L.J. Lumpkin III, MA LMFT joins to discuss the potential of psychedelic medicine in the context of sports psychology. L.J. is a therapist, adjunct professor at Pepperdine University, a coach, author, speaker, and the CEO of Nomad Healing Practices.

In this conversation, L.J. shares his personal experience as an athlete and discusses the difficult transition to a new life once an athlete’s career has concluded. He compares the need to reinvent oneself in this context to ego death and explains how psychedelic-assisted therapy may be helpful for navigating this transition. L.J. also discusses the intense pressure athletes are under to perform, mentioning that the drive to win can often overpower the more basic mode of play at the heart of athleticism. This is an area where he finds ketamine to be a particularly powerful medicine, as its dissociate quality can help athletes tune out the high pressure expectations. L.J. also discusses leveraging the critical learning period provided by psychedelic therapies to institute new healthy habits, something which could benefit athletes both on and off the field.

In this episode you'll hear:

• How ketamine-assisted therapy may be able to help athletes with their unique psychological challenges
• Integrating mindfulness to prepare for psychedelic therapies
• Leveraging the somatic component of psychedelic therapies to address pain
• The importance of integration practices and support systems
• The differences between working with psilocybin versus ketamine
• Drowning out critics and sports commentary and getting back to basics with the help of psychedelic therapy

Quotes:

“If you’ve been paid millions of dollars to hit and be aggressive for so long and that’s how you’ve dealt with your emotions—and it wasn’t a problem because you were being rewarded for it—what do you do when you’re not getting rewarded for that anymore? When you have to actually change how you process emotion—there’s not a playbook for that.” [7:46]

“Just talking about [mental health] and normalizing it—all of a sudden you’re allowed to get help, you’re allowed to heal, you’re allowed to go to practices that have been practiced throughout human civilization. We’re bringing [psychedelics] back and I think that athletes are the ones who are really going to be the ship of normalization.” [22:38]

“Especially if you’re off season, those other medicines [besides ketamine] I think they’re going to be even more helpful because that might encourage the rest, it might encourage being able to connect with family systems. I think for some of the more acute stuff, the ketamine does serve a great purpose in that.” [28:16]

Links:

L.J. on Instagram

L.J. on LinkedIn

Nomad Healing Practices website

Psychedelic Medicine Association

Porangui

In this episode of the Psychedelic Medicine Podcast, podcast host Dr. Lynn Marie Morski comes on the mic to provide a five-year update on the podcast and share the changes in the legal landscape of psychedelics in the past half-decade. Lynn Marie Morski, MD, JD is the president of the Psychedelic Medicine Association and host of the Psychedelic Medicine Podcast. She sits on the advisory boards of Psychedelics Today, Cybin, VETS, Inc (Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions), the Oxenberg Foundation, and the Ketamine Task Force. Dr. Morski is a Mayo Clinic-trained physician in family medicine and sports medicine, as well as an attorney and former adjunct law professor.

In this anniversary episode you’ll hear about the legally-accessible forms of psychedelic therapy which have come to prominence as potential mainstream therapeutics in recent years. Dr. Mroski shares Information on the legal adult use framework for psilocybin in Oregon, including licensing, costs, and exclusion criteria. She also discusses programs in Australia and Canada that will allow certain patients to access psychedelic therapies such as psilocybin- and MDMA-assisted therapy. In addition to classic psychedelic medicines, Dr. Morski also shares information on the medicine which is currently most accessible: ketamine. She discusses the difference between S-ketamine and R-ketamine and on-label and off-label uses of this substance. In closing, Dr. Morski presents some of the finer details of the current landscape of insurance coverage for ketamine.

In this episode you'll hear:

• The difference between decriminalization and legalization
• The FDA decision to deny the Lykos Therapeutics’ new drug application for MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD
• The upcoming Colorado psilocybin program
• Psychiatric licenses to administer MDMA and LSD to patients in Australia
• The Special Access Program for psychedelic therapies in Canada
• Legal ketamine access in the United States
• How the Psychedelic Medicine Podcast chooses guests

Quotes:

“I wanted to focus mostly on what is legal because we know that’s the way things are going to be the most monitored and therefore safely accessible.” [20:45]

“People are in this industry because they want other people to feel better and they want to help and they’re so generous with their time” [25:31]

Links:

clinicaltrials.gov - the place to find information on upcoming clinical trials for psychedelic medicine for which you may qualify

Insurance Coverage for Psychedelic Therapy by Vincent Joralemon

SPRAVATO withMe Patient Support Program

Enthea insurance

Previous episode: How to Choose A Psychedelic Facilitator or Retreat Center with Joël Brierre

Previous episode: Warning Signs When Selecting a Psychedelic Facilitator with Juliana Mulligan

Previous episode: Ketamine Scientific Research with Dr. Jason Wallach

Psychedelic Medicine Association

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In this episode of the Psychedelic Medicine Podcast, Dr. David Rabin, MD, PhD joins to discuss whether genes can be predictive of one’s response to MDMA Therapy. Dr. Rabin, a board-certified psychiatrist and neuroscientist, is the co-founder & chief medical officer at Apollo Neuroscience. In addition to his clinical psychiatry practice, Dr. Rabin is also the co-founder & executive director of The Board of Medicine, and a psychedelic clinical researcher currently evaluating the mechanism of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in treatment-resistant mental illnesses.

In this conversation, Dr. Rabin shares his research into epigenetic responses to MDMA-therapy, exploring topics of trauma, gene expression, and personalized, data-driven medicine. He discusses the seminal discovery that trauma can cause epigenetic changes in the structure and function of the cortical system and his own research findings that uncovered a reversal of these changes associated with MDMA-assisted therapy. Dr. Rabin hopes further research in this area may allow for leveraging epigenetic data to determine which psychedelic medicine a particular patient may be most likely to respond to and track how effective a given treatment has been. In closing, he expresses excitement about bringing objective biological precision to mental health treatment, drawing a parallel to the discovery of antibiotics which allowed for much more tailored treatments of infections which has saved countless lives.

In this episode you'll hear:

• Response rates to psychedelic-assisted therapy for PTSD versus conventional therapies
• The consequences of ineffective treatment for PTSD
• MDMA-assisted therapy as preventative care and the societal cost savings involved
• Genetics, epigenetics, and gene expression
• Using epigenetic data from simple saliva swabs to better gauge response to MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD

Quotes:

“Most of the treatments we have available today for PTSD—that are the FDA-cleared, considered gold standard treatments—only actually induce remission from illness… in about 30% of people. So of the 100% of the millions of people every year that are getting treated for PTSD, with the best treatments that we have that are currently available, only 30%—at best—are getting better long term. Everyone else has a diagnosis of PTSD for life.” [3:55]

“MDMA-assisted therapy for people with PTSD is having an effect that’s similar to what we saw with the discovery of antibiotics for infection.” [8:07]

“Folks with severe PTSD who went through this trial, when they received MDMA-assisted therapy, [the researchers] saw a statistically significant change—in terms of repair—of the cortisol receptor’s epigenetic code which reflects improved structure and function of that receptor site. But not only that—we saw that the amount that people got better… was directly correlated with… the amount of remodeling and repair at the receptor site.” [18:36]

“Epigenetic code is actually something that can be modified by experiences in our environment. And trauma—or PTSD diagnoses, a series of significant traumas over time—can in fact change epigenetic code of the cortisol receptor gene. And that changes how the cortisol receptor gene gets made, and it changes its function.” [29:52]

“PTSD is a disorder of learned fear. How do we treat PTSD? In animals and humans, we provide the same stimulation that they were getting that they are now afraid of in the context of safety. That’s how exposure therapy works, that’s how MDMA therapy works to some extent—all of these tools and techniques work to treat PTSD effectively… in the same way. It’s called safety conditioning.” [36:48]

Links:

Dr. Rabin’s article: Pilot study suggests DNA methylation of the glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1) is associated with MDMA-assisted therapy treatment response for severe PTSD

Dr. Rabin’s website

Dr. Rabin on LinkedIn

Dr. Rabin on Instagram

Dr. Rabin on Twitter

Apollo Neuroscience website

Psychedelic Medicine Association

Porangui