Groundbreaking psychedelic research centre opens its doors in Hamilton

Hamilton is now home to a groundbreaking new research centre.

St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton launched a centre that looks at how psychedelics might be useful in medicine.

Dr. Anthony Adili, the chief innovation officer at St. Joe’s, says psychedelics have shown great promise when it comes to treating things like chronic pain, depression and addiction.

Alison Myrden, a woman who deals with chronic pain, says psilocybin – the active ingredient in magic mushrooms – helps her immensely.

“As soon as I was handed a five gram magic mushroom, I was so desperate at the time for relief that I ate it,” said Myrden.

Myrden suffers from trigeminal neuralgia, a chronic facial pain condition. She says one day in 2017 she was at her wits end, which led her to try psychedelics.

“After 15 minutes I was pain free for five hours for the first time. So I went to my doctor and asked for an authorization for psychedelics,” said Myrden.

Ever since, Myrden has been an advocate for using them for medicinal purposes.

“I’ve been waiting since 2017 for the government to legalize and regulate all of these substances that people like me consume to feel better – and we’re still waiting,” said Myrden.

That wish could be getting closer.

St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton is dedicating a research centre at its West 5th Campus to take a closer look at how psychedelics might be useful in medicine.

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“Psychedelics research has basically reached a turning point and is rapidly emerging as an area in medicine where we have the potential to transform how we manage patients with very serious medical conditions,” said Dr. Adili.

Some of these conditions include mental health, substance abuse disorders, neurodegenerative disorders and chronic pain.

Right now, the research centre is doing active trials with psilocybin to treat chronic pain and cannabis addiction.

“There are people who cannot function without daily use of cannabis, so we have a trial that is looking at the role of psilocybin in addressing this cannabis disuse dysfunction,” said Dr. Adili.

And it’s not just psilocybin that will be researched.

“We’ll also be looking at the role of ketamine, MDMA, DMT – a whole host of psychedelics to see which ones will provide therapeutic benefits for our patients, which patients, and in what dosing. So we’ll be looking at the full gamut,” said Dr. Adili.

This research centre will act as a hub to connect researchers across Canada and around the world.

The psychedelics used in the research are tightly regulated while recreational use remains illegal.

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