Neuroimaging and the Investigation of Drug-Drug Interactions Involving Psychedelics

Matthew B Wall; Rebecca Harding; Natalie Ertl; Tommaso Barba; Rayyan Zafar; Mark Sweeney; David J Nutt; Eugenii A Rabiner; David Erritzoe

doi:10.1177/26331055241286518

Neuroimaging and the Investigation of Drug-Drug Interactions Involving Psychedelics

Neurosci Insights. 2024 Oct 8:19:26331055241286518. doi: 10.1177/26331055241286518. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Matthew B Wall^{1

2

3}, Rebecca Harding⁴, Natalie Ertl^{1

3}, Tommaso Barba³, Rayyan Zafar^{2

3}, Mark Sweeney^{2

3}, David J Nutt^{2

3}, Eugenii A Rabiner¹, David Erritzoe^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Invicro, London, UK.
² Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London UK.
³ Centre for Psychedelic research and Neuropsychopharmacology, Imperial College London, UK.
⁴ Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit, Faculty of Brain Sciences, University College London, UK.

Abstract

Psychedelic therapies are an emerging class of treatments in psychiatry with great potential, however relatively little is known about their interactions with other commonly used psychiatric medications. As psychedelic therapies become more widespread and move closer to the clinic, they likely will need to be integrated into existing treatment models which may include one or more traditional pharmacological therapies, meaning an awareness of potential drug-drug interactions will become vital. This commentary outlines some of the issues surrounding the study of drug-drug interactions of this type, provides a summary of some of the relevant key results to date, and charts a way forward which relies crucially on multimodal neuroimaging investigations. Studies in humans which combine Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), plus ancillary measures, are likely to provide the most comprehensive assessment of drug-drug interactions involving psychedelics and the relevant effects at multiple levels of the drug response (molecular, functional, and clinical).

Keywords: Neuroimaging; PET; SSRI; anti-depressants; fMRI; psychedelics.