A new University of California, San Francisco project aims to study the effects of psychedelic substances outside a laboratory, by following people who already plan to take them, the university said in a statement summarized in a Times-Herald / SFGate roundup.
The initiative, called the CANOPY Project, is run by UCSF professor of neurology Robin Carhart-Harris and received funding through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. Researchers will not provide or encourage the use of psychedelics. Instead, they are seeking people already planning to take drugs including psilocybin, LSD, ayahuasca, ibogaine, MDMA and ketamine at home, organized retreats or similar settings.
The project will follow 3,000 participants before and after their experiences to gather data on how the drugs affect brain chemistry, mood and well-being. It is intended as a starting point for further, more targeted studies of potential benefits in treating diseases and conditions, according to UCSF. "The study will explore why participants decide to take a psychedelic, what their motivation or intention is, what kind of environment they'll be in at the time, what they think and feel beforehand, what the experience is like for them, and any changes they notice afterward or we observe based on their responses to psychometric measures," researchers wrote in the consent form.
Participants will complete assessments before and after their experiences and wear electronic devices during the sessions that gather health data. Those who are able to travel to UCSF will undergo brain imaging and EEGs and submit blood and saliva samples. Most observation, the university said, will be remote.
The design is unusual because it studies use that is already planned, rather than administering substances in a clinic. That also means the settings will vary, and the project is not a clinical trial that assigns a drug and a dose. UCSF framed it as a way to understand why psychedelics affect people differently. The announcement, as reported, did not list a start date for enrollment or say whether volunteers will be paid. People interested in volunteering would need to go through UCSF's own study channels; this article is not a sign-up page and is not encouraging anyone to take psychedelics.