Huvudhandledare: Johan Lundberg
Bihandledare: Daniel Lundqvist, Anton Forsberg Morén, Granville Matheson, Niklas Edvall.
Brief description of the doctoral project
This research plan will focus on two cohorts of patients with depression, treated with a single dose of psilocybin. These two cohorts are named after the study protocol, PSIPET (The Effect of Psilocybin on MDD Symptom Severity and Synaptic Density) and CAPSI (Cancer related major depression treated with a single dose of psilocybin). Within the PSIPET cohort, 30 participants with MDD have been enrolled in a randomized phase 2 trial, where they received either 25mg of psilocybin or 100mg of niacin (1:1 randomization) as an active control to aid in blinding. Participants undergo [11C]UCB-J PET-experiments 1-7 days before and 15 days after dosing to assess synaptic density. They had follow up visits in the first weeks and after a year, with monthly online self-assessment of depression symptoms. As of the day of writing, 19th December 2023, almost all patients from the PSIPET cohort have completed their one year follow up. Within this thesis, only the control group will be used to assess test-retest variability of [11C]UCB-J, since that knowledge in depressed patients is lacking. Within the CAPSI cohort, a total of 100 cancer patients with comorbid MDD will be recruited from 4 locations: Stockholm, Göteborg, Uppsala and Orebro. At each site, the 25 patients will be randomized to receive either 25mg of psilocybin or 1mg of psilocybin (2:1 randomization) as an active control. Depending on the site of recruitment, participants will undergo different neuroimaging techniques: Göteborg and Orebro: only EEG at baseline and once after dosing Uppsala: MRI, MEG/EEG and [11C]UCB-J PET at baseline and once after dosing
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