State psychiatrist to talk psychedelics and mental health – MLive.com

Update: Organizers no longer plan to make the event open to the general public. It will be open only to medical professionals and state employees, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

ANN ARBOR, MI Jamie Sweigarts interest in the therapeutic benefits of psychedelic drugs started while she was completing a psychiatry residency at Henry Ford Hospital four years ago, when she witnessed a patients swift recovery from alcohol dependence.

I was primarily interested in addiction, she said. I wanted to do an addiction fellowship and I learned about psychedelics when I was studying and talking to people.

When a patient recovered from his substance-use disorder, a drinking problem, after using psilocybin mushrooms, also known as magic mushrooms, Sweigart said it sparked her curiosity.

A man who had been struggling with alcohol addiction, with periods of sobriety that wouldnt last, had a high-dose mushroom trip and suddenly changed, Sweigart said.

It wasnt his intention to cure his addiction, but it had that effect, she said. He no longer had the urge to use alcohol.

Sweigart saw the man on an outpatient basis over time and watched him make positive lifestyle choices that reinforced his desire to stop drinking, like quitting his job at a bar and giving up problematic friendships, she said.

I was really blown away by the almost-overnight change in him, she said. It seemed like he had a new outlook on life. His worldview had kind of changed. He seemed to have more purpose.

Sweigart came across a group called the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies and started reading old studies, going to conferences and corresponding with researchers.

I became obsessed with it and it became really the focus of my academic inquiry, she said.

Sweigart, now a psychiatrist at the state of Michigans Center for Forensic Psychiatry, will speak to medical professionals and state employees Friday in an event titled Psychedelics and Mental Health. It takes place from 1:30-3 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6, at the center, just south of Ann Arbor at 8303 Platt Road in York Township.

Sweigart plans to give an overview of the basics of psychedelics, how they work in the brain, a brief history of their use and research, as well as current studies looking at psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy as treatment for mental health disorders.

A group called Decriminalize Nature Ann Arbor advocates for decriminalizing plants like peyote, as well as psychedelic mushrooms.

There was research on the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics decades ago and its been making a comeback, Sweigart said, indicating shes working with some University of Michigan researchers who are gearing up for more research.

If used safely, psychedelics could potentially help people dealing with depression, anxiety, PTSD, eating disorders, OCD, and drug and alcohol addiction, including tobacco and opioid dependence, Sweigart said, citing various studies.

What were learning now is actually just a repeat of the experiments in the 50s and 60s before it was banned, she said. But our methodology is much better now, and so I think the resurgence now is first to show the safety and tolerability of these compounds, and then to go back and see if the findings in the 60s still hold true.

Sweigart said there is some survey-based research going on at the Center for Forensic Psychiatry where she works, but no patients are involved in any clinical trials or studies.

The 272-bed psychiatric hospital, which operates under the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, provides diagnostic services to the criminal justice system and psychiatric treatment for criminal defendants found incompetent to stand for trial or acquitted by reason of insanity.

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State psychiatrist to talk psychedelics and mental health - MLive.com