While most clinical trials of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy focus on outcomes such as symptom severity of a particular disorder, or even secondary clinical outcomes like self-compassion, there is a lot of information that can be obtained from additionally measuring biological variables before and after psychedelic therapy. In this session we will discuss several examples of how such information can inform our knowledge about mechanism of action of psychedelic therapy, and the effects these treatments may have on overall physical well-being. Other uses of biomarkers will also be discussed. For example, biomarkers obtained prior to therapy can be useful in the prediction of clinical outcomes. Biomarkers can be used to validate or verify treatment response in situations where the measure is a known correlate of recovery or symptoms improvement. In this panel, Rachel Yehuda will present a brief overview of the rationale for assessing molecular and hormonal markers in blood. Candace Lewis present data from a recently published pilot study examining epigenetic marks on stress-related genes in the context of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD. Eric Vermetten will discuss other peripheral biomarkers, such as blood pressure and heart rate, that might inform our understanding of more transdiagnostic effects of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy on stress reduction and allostatic load. Why are biomarkers so critical? Other fields of medicine routinely rely not only subjective reports by patients of their outcomes, but on physiologic evidence of change from baseline. Obtaining signatures of change in the context of psychological conditions is an important development in the field of mental health and applying such concepts to psychedelic psychotherapy will help understand their impact on mental and physical states.
