Contributing Author: Stephanie Yarnell, MD, PhD
Overview: Facing one’s own death can be distressing, forcing an individual to confront existential questions that he or she might prefer to avoid. For individuals with terminal illnesses, this may be a source of great distress and prevent them from being able to experience a “good death”. What if there was a way to help make this process easier by helping individuals come to terms with this inevitable transition?
We present here a Facilitator’s Guide for teaching trainees about psychedelic therapy, with an emphasis on psilocybin, the so-called magic-mushrooms. Content based learning objectives include that the learner will be able to describe: potential uses of psychedelic therapy, basic theory behind this group of therapies, potential role of the default mode network, and limitations of this as a therapy. These objectives are assessed via role-play exercise with direct observation.
Author Affiliations: Dr. Yarnell is from the Department of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. David A. Ross, MD, PhD, and Ashley Walker, MD are the Contributing Editors of this publication. The National Neuroscience Curriculum Initiative is a collaborative effort with AADPRT and the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Council on Medical Education and Lifelong Learning and receives support from the NIH (R25 MH10107602S1) ©National Neuroscience Curriculum Initiative.
