Jessica L. Nielson, PhD
Assistant Professor and Principal Investigator, University of Minnesota
Abstract
Evaluating Self-Reported Outcomes of Psychedelic Experiences in Individuals Living with Spinal Cord Injury
Despite the promising therapeutic potential of psychedelics to improve mental health and quality of life, there is a lack of SCI-specific considerations for the therapeutic potential of psychedelics in this population. This has left a critical gap in both knowledge and service provision once these drugs are approved by the FDA for depression and PTSD in the broader population. These gaps justify the need to call psychedelic medicine into the realm of SCI research, and begin to generate the evidence base that will inform the role psychedelics may play in influencing participation, health practice, lifestyle, and support systems for SCI. Along with exploring potential benefits, we are called to begin by understanding the SCI-specific risk profile of these substances in light of this population’s unique vulnerabilities. Hospitalizations, severe spasms, changes in neuropathic pain, and severe autonomic dysreflexia have been reported. Furthermore, our pilot data demonstrate an increase in self-reported spasticity after intake of psychedelic substances is known to have the potential to excite serotonergic motor pathways. Concurrently, there are also reports of benefits in functional mobility and various aspects of mental health that are reported in the popular press. It is precisely the broad range of potential benefits across biological and psychological and social aspects of health and functioning that incites our research to fill the evidence gap. I will present data from our pilot study to help characterize the extent of potential risks, benefits, and other undefined factors surrounding ongoing psychedelic drug use in individuals living with SCI.
Bio
Jessica Nielson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, and Core Faculty in the Institute for Health Informatics at the University 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. She is Principal Investigator of the first psilocybin clinical trial at the University of Minnesota, and is also conducting 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. Outside of academia, Jessica is a grassroots community organizer aiming to promote education and harm reduction around psychedelics. She is the founder and Executive Director of the Psychedelic Society of Minnesota, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the Innovation Alchemist at Big Psych, co-founder of the DecriMN Coalition that recently advised Mayor Frey on the Executive Order to deprioritize entheogenic plants and fungi in Minneapolis, and was recently appointed by Governor Walz to serve on the Psychedelic Medicine Task Force.
