Lou Lukas, MD

Dr. Lukas is an associate professor of Palliative Medicine and Neurological Sciences at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the Chief of Palliative Medicine at the Nebraska and Western Iowa VA. She attended the UNMC School of Medicine, the Lehigh Valley Health Network Family Medicine residency, and the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at the University of Michigan. Originally a family physician, she migrated to palliative medicine when that field was new and is now leading a push for what she describes as Palliadelic Health, “relieving suffering by revealing the mind.”

She became interesting in psychedelics for palliative medicine after being a participant in a clinical trail of psilocybin for spiritual development at Johns Hopkins University in 2012. She is currently the PI for a exploratory trial exploring a psilocybin- and IFS-based intervention for distress related to advanced GI cancers, and the site PI for the largest trial of psilocybin for depressive to date.