The Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research (CPCR) is a Johns Hopkins Medicine research centre for psychedelic studies. Hopkins announced it on 4 September 2019 with $17 million from private donors, called it what is believed to be the first such research centre in the US, and said it relied on gifts because there was no federal funding for this kind of therapeutic research (Johns Hopkins Medicine, 2019). Roland Griffiths was named its first director.
It grew out of a programme that dates its regulatory approval to restart psychedelic research in volunteers to 2000 (CPCR history). Its studies include a 2021 randomized trial in 27 adults with major depression, which compared immediate with delayed treatment (Davis et al., 2021). The centre now describes itself as having more than 150 published studies (CPCR).
Its trials are small and screened, and some lack a placebo, so their results are early evidence, not proof of treatment. A 2021 review argues that psychedelic trials rarely report expectations or blinding and likely overestimate effects (Muthukumaraswamy et al., 2021). Psilocybin remains unapproved as a therapy in Canada (Health Canada).
Sources
- Johns Hopkins Medicine news release, 4 September 2019 (archived)
- CPCR: History
- CPCR: Who We Are
- Davis et al., 2021, JAMA Psychiatry
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