Medicine, Magic, & Methods: Psychedelics for Suicide Prevention
Stress-and trauma-related mental health conditions including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicidality remain highly devastating conditions with limited effective treatments. Traditional interventions—including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and trauma-focused therapies—often suffer from delayed onset, adverse side effects, and poor compliance, contributing to chronicity, medical comorbidities, and increased suicide risk. In contrast, psilocybin, a classic hallucinogen and psychoplastogen, rapidly enhances synaptic plasticity and offers a promising, fast-acting alternative. Emerging evidence from psilocybin-assisted therapy (PAT) across depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and substance use disorders suggests that PAT can provide substantial symptom relief with minimal side effects. Studies with other psychedelic/plastogenic medicines such as ibogaine also suggest potential for rapid and robust improvements.  This presentation will review the state of the science surrounding psilocybin and other psychoplastogens as transdiagnostic interventions for stress- and trauma-related psychiatric conditions – with focus on suicide prevention. Emphasis will be placed on the paradigm shift these interventions offer in both clinical care and neurobiological understanding, as well as on their potential benefits, risks, and the urgent need to address the hype and misinformation in this rapidly evolving field.

Educational Objectives
After completing this activity, learners will be able to:

• Describe the basic state of the science for psilocybin-assisted therapy.
• Identify ways in which psychoplastogens differ clinically and neurobiologically from traditionally available pharmacologic interventions such as SSRIs.
• Describe some of the important considerations with these interventions that are unique based on their history and differences in theoretical underpinnings.

CME PROGRAM OBJECTIVES / TARGET AUDIENCE This live activity has been designed with a virtual presentation to provide its target audience of Psychiatrists and Primary Care Physicians with clinically relevant information to advance the physicians’ competence so that they may develop strategies to apply the knowledge, skills and judgement from the educational activity into their practice.  

IDENTIFIED PRACTICE GAPS / NEEDS ASSESSMENT TAP has incorporated into this CME activity the relevant educational needs concerning competence that underlie the professional practice gaps of our participants.

ACCREDITATION STATEMENT This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Essential Areas accreditation requirements and policies of the Texas Medical Association (TMA) through the Joint Providership of the Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians and the Texas Academy of Psychiatry. TSPP is accredited by the TMA to provide continuing education for physicians.

CREDIT STATEMENT The Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians designates this Live Activity for a maximum of one (1) AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)TM. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in this activity.

FACULTY AND PLANNERS DISCLOSURE POLICY In compliance with the ACCME/TMA Standards for Commercial Support of CME, to assure balance, independence, objectivity and scientific rigor in all of its CME activities, prior to the education activity being delivered to the learners, the Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians implemented a mechanism to identify and resolve personal conflicts of interest from everyone who was in a position to control the content of the education activity. TSPP will disclose to learners the existence (or non-existence) of all relevant financial relationship(s) that the faculty and planners did (or did not) have with any ineligible companies concerned with the content of the educational presentation. Disclosure will occur prior to the presentation through written communication.

Estimated Time to Complete
1.0 hour, exclusive of break