Sicignano will receive the award this December in front of ~25,000 pharmacists at the Midyear Clinical Meeting in New Orleans, LA for his publication entitled “Impact of Psilocybin on Anxiety and Depression Associated with Life threatening Cancer: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis” published in the American Journal of Clinical Oncology. This systematic review with meta-analysis found that psychedelic therapy provides an opportunity for patients to process their trauma and in the process alleviate the anxiety and depression that comes with a life-threatening cancer diagnosis. However, while processing their trauma during the psychedelic session, there are significant elevations in heart rate and blood pressure while the patient has a cathartic experience. This publication was covered by media sites across the country with a reach of over 1.2 million people and is part of a series of research projects assessing the strengths and limitations of psychedelic literature going back to his sophomore year.
Sicignano says: “When I was a sophomore, I reached out to Dr. Michael White, from the Department of Pharmacy Practice. I told him I wanted to gain experience critically evaluating and summarizing the medical literature. He told me that the Drug Enforcement Agency stopped all psychedelic research in the early 1970s but had recently allowed them to be studied for mental health disorders. A potential research line could be to gather all the psychedelic studies and see if these treatments were just hype, promising, or proven. I had to immerse myself in understanding different mental health disorders and their rating scales while also learning from Dr. Adrian Hernandez, also from the Department of Pharmacy Practice, how to assess studies for risk of bias and pool them together using meta-analysis. To be honest, at first it seemed overwhelming, but I worked with my two research mentors and with more experienced students from their group. As I kept reading, asking questions, and practicing, it started to click, and I felt more confident in my skills. Of course, now I am the senior student researcher and must show new students the ropes.”
The projects Dakota worked on spanned entactogen, dissociative, and classical psychedelics, assessing their benefits and risks when used for post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and alcoholism. In these projects he found that psychedelics have strong evidence for benefit in post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. He recently found that ketamine is less effective than electroconvulsive therapy in suicidal patients but that using them together is better than using one of them alone. However, the evidence base assessing psychedelics in alcoholism is weak and there are some significant adverse events, especially in people with a history of psychosis. Dakota and his fellow 4th year Pharm.D. students Rohan Kantesaria and Matthew Mastropietro are presenting three posters summarizing their newest research findings about using psychedelics for the treatment of anxiety disorders at the Midyear meeting as well.
“I loved watching Dakota mature over the past several years from a naïve student bursting with passion to someone who understands the complexity of conducting research and the hard work that it requires but is still passionate about solving the mystery. I really appreciate the American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists Foundation who hold this annual competition,” says White. “It is important to support the next generation of pharmacy researchers and to highlight their work.” Similarly, Hernandez says: “Dakota impressed me as a very respectful student, and quickly he invested time and effort to learn about the intricacies of the systematic review process. He’s been instrumental in coordinating the work and moving these projects forward, and I am glad he will be recognized by the ASHP Foundation”.
Outside of his research, Sicignano works as an operating room intern at Yale New Haven hospital. He loves golfing, working out, and cooking. Upon graduation he hopes to find a residency in emergency medicine.
