Speaker Bio
Kelan Thomas, PharmD, MS, is an Associate Professor of Clinical Sciences at Touro University California College of Pharmacy and a board-certified psychiatric pharmacist (BCPP) with an outpatient psychiatric practice at San Francisco Veterans Affairs Health Care System. He completed a chemistry with pharmacology BS at Duke University, a pharmaceutical sciences PharmD at UC San Francisco, and a clinical research MS at University of Michigan. During his education he also conducted research related to psychopharmacology and psychiatric pharmacogenomics.
He has completed clinical pharmacy residencies at University of Michigan for postgraduate year one in pharmacotherapy and at University of Southern California for postgraduate year two in psychiatric care. Between residencies he also practiced as a psychiatric clinical pharmacist in Singapore at the Institute of Mental Health. In 2017, he completed the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research (CPTR) and MAPS MDMA-Assisted Therapy training programs, while starting collaborations with psychedelic clinical researchers at UC San Francisco. He is now a trainer for Fluence offering courses in psychedelic psychopharmacology and psilocybin-assisted therapy. His current research and scholarship are related to psychedelic psychopharmacology, adverse drug reactions and drug-drug interactions with the goal of optimizing psychiatric pharmacotherapy for clients.
ICPR 2024 Abstract
Safety first: evaluating toxicology and pharmacological interactions with psychedelics and psychiatric medications
Theoretical background and rationale: As psychedelic therapy advances closer to regulatory approval it becomes increasingly important to recognize the potential risks of psychedelic adverse effects and drug-drug interactions with available psychiatric medications
Research question and hypothesis: What are the documented toxicology cases and drug-drug interactions between psychedelic and psychiatric medications that could potentially affect the safety of psychedelic therapy?
Methods and analysis: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials, epidemiologic survey data and case reports provides a summary of the current evidence regarding safety of psychedelic therapy with psychiatric medications [1].
Main findings: Psilocybin and LSD have been evaluated for toxicity risk in pharmacodynamic drug-drug interaction studies with concomitant psychiatric medications and demonstrated a general trend toward decreased psychedelic subjective effects, but the evidence base thus far requires nuanced interpretation regarding these potential effects on efficacy [1-5]. There have not been any long-term psychedelic drug-drug interaction or microdosing safety analyses published to date.
Conclusions: Psilocybin and LSD have minimal toxicity risk and have demonstrated good tolerability in clinical trials, but current evidence remains insufficient to predict the long-term clinical impacts of concomitant psychiatric medications on psychedelic therapy efficacy and safety. Therefore, it is vital that future clinical trials continue investigating the impact of concomitant psychiatric medications to determine an optimal strategy for integrating psychedelic therapy into routine psychiatric clinical practice.