These Organizations Are Seeking Participants for Psychedelic Research

Are you considering volunteering to participate in psychedelic clinical trials and research? Well, these studies take in volunteers with specific conditions as well as those who are considered to be healthy. Whatever your reason for considering to participate, the following companies and ongoing studies have been identified for your convenience. But first, let’s have a quick look at what psychedelics are.  

These Organizations Need Research Participants for Psychedelic Therapy

This article published on NCBI explains that “psychedelics are powerful psychoactive substances that alter perception and mood and affect numerous cognitive processes”. The study goes on to explain these substances are “considered physiologically safe and do not lead to dependence or addiction”- which is important since they are quickly gaining interest for their therapeutic and medicinal purposes. Examples of the types of psychedelics include LSD, Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), Psilocybin, MDMA, Ayahuasca, Peyote, Ibogaine, etc. 

For an overview of the types of psychedelics and their therapeutic properties, be sure to check out this guide. 

• MAPS

MAPS is short for Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies which was founded in 1986 by Dr. Rick Doblin. MAPS is a “non-profit and research and educational organization that develops medical, legal, and cultural contexts for people to benefit from the careful uses of psychedelics and marijuana”. MAPS sponsors clinical trials “around the world that offers volunteers the opportunity to participate in our research studies”. MAPS is currently researching MDMA-Assisted therapy for PTSD, MDMA on healthy volunteers as well as ayahuasca for PTSD. 

For more information on how to join their clinical trials, check out this link.

• Johns Hopkins Medicine

Johns Hopkins Medicine Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research “is deeply committed to exploring innovative treatments” for their patients. Their scientists “have shown that psychedelics have real potential as medicine, and this new center” assists them in exploring “that potential”. They have upcoming studies on psilocybin as a new therapy for opioid dependence, Alzheimer’s disease, PTSD, post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome, anorexia nervosa as well as alcohol use in people with major depression. 

For more information on how to participate, be sure to check out this link. 

• Imperial College London

Imperial College London Centre for Psychedelic Research “focuses on the action and clinical use of psychedelics, with a particular focus on researching the treatment of depression”. The center aims to investigate the potential of psychedelics for treating various conditions, including anorexia. The center also hopes to help “gather additional clinical evidence and become a prototype for the licensed psychedelic care facilities of the future”. Their research also makes use of MDMA and DMT (which is found in ecstasy and ayahuasca) in addition to psilocybin. They are currently still recruiting volunteers for a study on psilocybin vs conventional antidepressant drugs in patients with depression.

For more information on how to join their research, check out this link. 

• King’s College London and Compassion

Compassion is “a mental health care company” which is “dedicated to accelerating patient access to evidence-based innovation in mental health”. Compassion is centered on researching psilocybin therapy which could “help people with treatment-resistant depression”. Compassion explains that “as part of our psilocybin therapy development program” they have “partnered with the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London to run a study with healthy volunteers”. King’s College London encourages participants to contact them with their details so that they may store them on the database for future studies- as is the case with most of these other companies and ongoing studies in need of participants. 

For more information on taking part in their research, be sure to check out this link. 

• Maryland Oncology Hematology

Maryland Oncology Hematology “believes in providing patients with advanced, comprehensive cancer therapies in a community setting that allows patients to receive care near their support systems”. While the center is mostly centered on treatment, they also sponsor multiple clinical trials and research on using psychedelics to “help advance the science of cancer care” and for offering “the best possible treatments and improved patient outcomes”. They are currently recruiting participants for a study on the safety and efficacy of psilocybin in cancer patients with major depressive disorder. 

For more information on how to participate in their research, be sure to check out this link. 

Volunteers Will Contribute Significant Medical Value 

In addition, if you wish to locate current studies that are recruiting, be sure to visit this Clinical Trials page belonging to the NIH. You can alternate the keywords between different types of psychedelics in order to find the studies that are in need of participants as well as being able to view the eligibility criteria and outcome measures. 

Participating in clinical trials and research which are making use of psychedelic substances for therapy is important to further our understanding of how these substances are able to contribute medical value as well as better understanding their interactions with our bodies and the conditions we may have. The aforementioned companies with ongoing research have been selected based on their ethics and reputation to ensure participant safety. Opportunities such as these are also significant for finding potential treatments for conditions that are currently without effective means of treating their conditions. If you have any experience in similar clinical trials, we would love to hear about it in the comment section below.