Uma Chatterjee - Psychedelics, PTSD, & Comorbid OCD: Considering the implications of comorbid OCD...

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Psychedelics, PTSD, & Comorbid OCD: Considering the implications of comorbid OCD in the psychedelic-assisted treatments of PTSD.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are often comorbid psychiatric disorders within patients. Approximately 40% of patients diagnosed with PTSD are also diagnosed with OCD, which far supersedes the estimated 1-3% rate of general OCD prevalence. First-line psychotherapies fundamentally differ for both conditions, with traditional PTSD psychotherapies generally being contraindicated for OCD treatment. Especially in cases where patients' PTSD and OCD diagnoses present a dynamically-related functional relationship, treatments for both conditions often result in both parallel and inverse results, such that PTSD treatment can often worsen OCD symptoms. Furthermore, patients with comorbid PTSD and OCD are shown to experience more severe symptomology of OCD than typical OCD populations.

Therefore, PTSD patients with comorbid OCD are a highly vulnerable, at-risk population when studying and administering PTSD treatments.Thus, when studying the potential of psychedelic-assisted therapies for PTSD, a notable point of consideration is the potential challenge of comorbid OCD in PTSD patient populations. This talk will orient the audience to the comorbid nature of dynamically-related PTSD and OCD diagnoses, assess current psychological and pharmacological treatments of comorbid PTSD and OCD, and discuss the potential biological and pharmacological mechanisms of psychedelics that impact PTSD and OCD as comorbid conditions.

This talk also evaluates the current paradigm of psychedelic-assisted therapy for PTSD in consideration of comorbid OCD through the comprehensive and multidisciplinary analysis of current trials across neurobiology, psychology, neuropharmacology, clinical trial/research design, and phenomenology. Finally, this talk discusses several directions for further investigations into this topic across a wide range of relevant disciplines, and closes with numerous recommendations to implement for addressing this critical comorbidity.

BIOGRAPHY
Uma R. Chatterjee, MHPS is a neuroscientist, board-certified Mental Health Peer Specialist, mental health advocate, and psychedelic organizer. Uma will complete her M.S. in neuroscience this spring at the University of Texas at Dallas, working in the Kolber Lab to elucidate the neurobiological mechanisms driving the central amygdala’s hemispheric lateralization. Uma is also board-certified Mental Health Peer Specialist, in practice since 2021. Her MHPS practice serves peers in individual and group capacities, including through her global support group system for cancer survivors, the Cancer Thriver Collective. She also holds a B.S. in Psychology.

Uma also conducts award-winning psychedelic research, bringing together her interdisciplinary background to study the effects of psychedelic-assisted therapy on comorbid obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder across several disciplines, including neurobiology, neuropharmacology, psychology, clinical trial/research design, and phenomenology. Uma has presented her research at numerous scientific conferences and has received several accolades for her novel findings, including winning first place in the PsychedelX 2022 conference competition and several presentation, research, and travel grant awards. The culmination of Uma’s project has resulted in a published abstract by the Society for Neuroscience and an accepted first-author manuscript for publication, currently in preparation with collaborators.

Uma's neurobiology research and global MHPS practice are both informed by her lived experience with lifelong OCD, comorbid PTSD, young-adult cancer, chronic illnesses, and her South Asian heritage. Her survivorship serves as the bedrock of her advocacy, carried out through her work as an educator, organizer, and creator. Uma serves on the board of directors for the Intercollegiate Psychedelics Network (IPN), spearheading equitable educational and mentorship initiatives for students in the psychedelic field. She also serves as a global advocate for the International OCD Foundation, facilitating IOCDF initiatives through neurobiology education projects and raising awareness for OCD and mental health in historically excluded populations. Uma’s interdisciplinary background and life experiences all inform her perspective as an emerging researcher in the field of psychedelic neurobiology, and she will continue researching psychiatric disorders and psychedelics through her upcoming doctoral studies.