PMID- 34624734 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE DCOM- 20220124 LR - 20220531 IS - 1873-4758 (Electronic) IS - 0955-3959 (Linking) VI - 99 DP - 2022 Jan TI - United States National Institutes of Health grant funding for psychedelic-assisted therapy clinical trials from 2006-2020. PG - 103473 LID - S0955-3959(21)00378-9 [pii] LID - 10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103473 [doi] AB - BACKGROUND: Medicine is currently experiencing a "psychedelic renaissance", said by many to have commenced in 2006. Since then, clinical trials have consistently demonstrated promising findings for psychedelic-assisted therapies in the treatment of various mental health conditions and addictions. While most of this work has been privately funded, governmental biomedical research funding bodies in countries such as Australia, Canada, Israel, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom have begun supporting it. Given that the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world, it is important to understand the degree to which the organization is supporting clinical trials of psychedelic-assisted therapies. We are unaware of existing literature quantifying direct NIH grant support for psychedelic-assisted therapy clinical trials, so we sought to answer this important question by searching all NIH grants awarded since the beginning of the psychedelic renaissance. METHODS: We queried NIH RePORTER, NIH's grant database, for grants awarded from 2006-2020 mentioning the psychedelics 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT), ayahuasca, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), ibogaine, lysergic acid (LSD), mescaline, peyote, and psilocybin. We manually reviewed resulting grants to determine whether they directly funded psychedelic-assisted therapy clinical trials. RESULTS: We identified zero NIH grants directly funding psychedelic-assisted therapy clinical trials during the study period. CONCLUSION: While governmental biomedical research funding bodies in other countries have begun funding clinical trials of psychedelic-assisted therapies during the psychedelic renaissance, NIH has yet to directly fund a single psychedelic-assisted therapy clinical trial. Concerns about risks related to psychedelics, a federal law preventing promotion of legalization of Schedule 1 drugs, and prioritization of grants for other types of studies on psychedelics may explain the dearth of NIH funding for psychedelic-assisted therapy clinical trials. CI - Copyright (c) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. FAU - Barnett, Brian S AU - Barnett BS AD - Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Center for Behavioral Health, Neurological Institute, Cleveland Clinic, 1730 W 25th Street, Cleveland, OH 44113, United States. Electronic address: barnetb3@ccf.org. FAU - Parker, Sloane E AU - Parker SE AD - Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT, United States. FAU - Weleff, Jeremy AU - Weleff J AD - Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Center for Behavioral Health, Neurological Institute, Cleveland Clinic, 1730 W 25th Street, Cleveland, OH 44113, United States. LA - eng PT - Clinical Trial PT - Journal Article DEP - 20211006 PL - Netherlands TA - Int J Drug Policy JT - The International journal on drug policy JID - 9014759 RN - 0 (Hallucinogens) RN - 2RV7212BP0 (Psilocybin) RN - 8NA5SWF92O (Lysergic Acid Diethylamide) RN - KE1SEN21RM (N-Methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine) SB - IM MH - *Hallucinogens MH - Humans MH - Lysergic Acid Diethylamide MH - *N-Methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine MH - National Institutes of Health (U.S.) MH - Psilocybin MH - United States OTO - NOTNLM OT - Ayahuasca OT - Dimethyltryptamine OT - Hallucinogens OT - Ibogaine OT - LSD OT - Lysergic acid OT - MDMA OT - National Institutes of Health OT - Psilocybin OT - Psychedelic-assisted therapy OT - Psychedelics OT - Research funding COIS- Declarations of Interest Dr. Barnett has received stock options from CB Therapeutics as compensation for advisory services. He also receives monetary compensation for editorial work for DynaMed Plus (EBSCO Industries, Inc) and owns personal stock in Compass Pathways. Dr. Weleff and Ms. Parker report no financial relationships with commercial entities. EDAT- 2021/10/09 06:00 MHDA- 2022/01/27 06:00 CRDT- 2021/10/08 20:29 PHST- 2021/08/25 00:00 [received] PHST- 2021/09/15 00:00 [revised] PHST- 2021/09/16 00:00 [accepted] PHST- 2021/10/09 06:00 [pubmed] PHST- 2022/01/27 06:00 [medline] PHST- 2021/10/08 20:29 [entrez] AID - S0955-3959(21)00378-9 [pii] AID - 10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103473 [doi] PST - ppublish SO - Int J Drug Policy. 2022 Jan;99:103473. doi: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103473. Epub 2021 Oct 6.