Preclinical Phase II Testing of Psilocybin
in Alcohol Addiction and
Epigenetic and Neuroimaging Studies on the
Mode of Action
Worldwide more than 2 billion people consume alcohol. Nearly 60 million EU citizens engage in harmful drinking and 23 million Europeans are suffering from alcohol addiction. Approved pharmacological treatments for alcoholism are limited in their effectiveness, and new drugs that can be translated into the clinic are warranted. In the last decade there was considerable enthusiasm that advances in the neuroscience of alcohol addiction would soon translate into mechanistically novel alcoholism therapies. However, several novel mechanisms that appeared to hold great promise based on preclinical data failed to translate to the human condition. In our Psi-Alc proposal we will attempt to improve the reliability of preclinical academic research as well as enhance the chance of clinical translatability of our findings. Our consortium is interested in the neurobiological underpinnings of alcohol addiction and the development of new treatment possibilities...
Efficacy of psilocybin in a unique DSM-5 based rat model
Work-package 1
"We hypothesize that a single administration of psilocybin will have a long-lasting relapse preventing effect in alcohol addicted rats."
Human and translational studies: Effects of psilocybin on brain connectivity in the alcohol addicted brain
Work-package 4
"We hypothesize that a single administration of psilocybin will lead to restoration of normal network function in the diseased brain."
Efficacy of psilocybin in msP rats and Effects of psilocybin on behavioral mechanisms of addiction
Work-package 2 & 3
"We hypothesize that a single administration of psilocybin will have a long-lasting relapse preventing effect in msPs rats."
Effects of psilocybin on the epigenetic and transcriptomic landscape
Work-package 5
"Here we will test the hypothesis that psilocybin induces long-lasting epigenetic changes in brain cells that contribute to its therapeutic effect."