UNM Academic Interest Group
The UNM Academic Interest Group (AIG) on Psychedelic Assisted Therapies and Research was formed in 2023. As potential clinical applications and research for psychedelic therapies extend across a wide variety of disciplines on the health sciences campus as well as social sciences areas on the main campus, we welcome members from all of these disciplines. We believe that there is a great opportunity for collaboration, co-education, and generation of new ideas and projects.
UNM HSC’s involvement in psychedelic research began with Rick Strassman’s studies of N,N-dimethyltryptamine-(DMT) and Psilocybin from 1990 to 1995. These studies were the first human research of psychedelic compounds since psychedelic research was halted in the early 1970s. Currently, there are active research plans and proposals at UNM for the study of MDMA assisted therapy for co-occurring post-traumatic stress disorder and opioid use disorder, neuroimaging to assess the effects of ketamine on neural pathways in individuals with PTSD, ketamine assisted therapy for polysubstance use involving opioids, and psilocybin for methamphetamine. Other identified research interests at UNM have included end of life anxiety, neurochemical and psychological mechanisms of change, and chronic pain.
Researchers at the University of New Mexico will be teaming up with Usona Institute to study the use of psilocybin as a treatment for major depressive disorder. This Phase 3 study is designed to deepen our understanding of psilocybin’s potential effectiveness for major depression treatment, durability, and safety.
The University of New Mexico’s Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Research team is partnering with Reunion Neuroscience to evaluate a form of psychedelic assisted therapy for treating postpartum depression.
