To be diagnosed with a substance use disorder, a person must meet specific diagnostic criteria for continued substance use despite negative consequences. While short-term positive and negative mood changes are common with psychedelic and dissociative drugs, more research is needed to better understand the long-term effects these substances may have on mental health. NIDA is a biomedical research organization and does not provide personalized medical advice, treatment, counseling, referral services, social services, drug test review services, or legal consultation. Various types of individual, group, and family counseling or psychotherapy (sometimes called behavioral therapies), are the most common treatments for substance use disorders. Behavioral therapies are delivered by a licensed mental health professional.

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The FDA has also granted Breakthrough Therapy designation for two formulations of psilocybin being studied as potential medical treatments for depression. NIDA conducts and supports research on psychedelic and dissociative drugs to help inform health decisions and policies related to their use. This research includes efforts to better understand the health effects of psychedelic and dissociative drugs, how chemicals in—or similar to—these drugs work in the brain, and whether they may be able to treat substance use disorders and other conditions.

NIH Policies & Guidance

HIDTA seizures don’t encompass all drug seizures in the US; however, the researchers did observe similar overall increases by region based on data published by the DEA National Forensic Laboratory Information System. The authors also note that it is unknown to what extent psilocybin mushrooms were seized in “wet” or “dry” form, which can significantly impact the recorded weight of each seizure and prevents weight measures from being translated into possible doses. Mutual help groups are peer-led recovery organizations that provide fellowship and support to people with substance use disorders by connecting them to peers who are in recovery. These include 12-step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous and others such as SMART Recovery, Women in Sobriety, and Life Ring.

Research Reports

In fact, the illicit manufacturing, marketing, and trafficking of fentanyl that is driving our current opioid overdose crisis in the United States is taken right out of the NPS playbook. That’s also exacerbated by the emergence of opioid NPSs, such as 2-benzylbenzimidazole opioids or “nitazene” compounds. These drugs are showing up as stand-alone products and as adulterants in heroin and counterfeit pain medications, and they’re even more potent than fentanyl. Substance use disorder treatment is aimed at helping people stop or manage their drug use. For many people, abstinence—or stopping drug use completely and preventing return to use (relapse)—may be the most appropriate goal.

Substance Use Disorders

The drugs act by binding certain serotonin receptors in the brain to promote the growth of new spines and formation of new synapses. For example, pharmaceutical companies developed amphetamine-like stimulants as appetite suppressants, and novel opioids as pain relievers. Scientists developed synthetic cannabinoids to study how the brain interacts with cannabis.

• This study had followed a slow but steady resurgence in research with psychedelics in the preceding two decades on major depression, cancer-related existential distress, and substance-use disorders, funded mostly by philanthropy.
• In addition, emerging substances are usually not included in emergency department drug tests and are not routinely included in the toxicology tests used after a fatal overdose.
• For questions pertaining to these opportunities, please email the listed contact
• These awards are designed to ensure that scientists of the very highest caliber can meet the country’s need for substance use and addiction research.
• Moreover, it did so at doses 100-fold lower than ketamine, a drug used for treatment-resistant depression.
• There have been more than 1,000 substances identified globally, and it is a daunting task to decide which to study in our preclinical experiments.

However, among 35- to 50-year-olds, the prevalence of binge drinking in 2023 increased from five and 10 years ago. The Monitoring the Future study is conducted by scientists at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, Ann Arbor, and is funded by the National Institutes of Health. The team tested JRT’s ability to bind different receptors found in the central nervous system. While LSD can bind to many receptor types, JRT bound only to serotonin receptors. Interactions with a specific serotonin receptor, the 5-HT2A receptor, are responsible for both the plasticity-promoting and hallucinogenic effects of psychedelics.

These emerging substances often produce similar effects and/or are chemically similar to illegal or prescription opioids, stimulants, benzodiazapines (“benzos”), or other existing types of drugs. Researchers are actively working to develop compounds to treat addiction to stimulants, cannabis, and other drugs for which FDA-approved medications do not yet exist. They are also studying medications that could treat side effects of addiction, like sleep problems. Read more about medications for opioid use disorder, medications for alcohol use disorder, and treatments for tobacco use disorder on the NIDA website.

The modified compound bound to the same serotonin receptors as DMT, but in a slightly different manner. Thus, a research team led by Dr. David Olson at the University of California, Davis set out to design a drug that retained LSD’s ability to promote neuron growth without the hallucinogenic potential. Results of their effort, which was funded in part by NIH, appeared in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on April 14, 2025. This is particularly true for people with schizophrenia or a family history of psychosis. Hallucinations and delusions are a symptom of schizophrenia that hallucinogenic drugs can make worse.

Federal funding on psychedelics would remain dry for 50 years, until 2021 when Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore) was awarded a nearly $4 million NIH grant to investigate the potential effects of psilocybin on tobacco addiction. This study had followed a slow but steady resurgence in research with psychedelics in the preceding two decades on major depression, cancer-related existential distress, and substance-use disorders, funded mostly by philanthropy. Past-year use of cannabis and hallucinogens stayed at historically high levels in 2023 among adults aged 19 to 30 and 35 to 50, according to the latest findings from the Monitoring the Future survey. psychedelic and dissociative drugs national institute on drug abuse nida In contrast, past-year use of cigarettes remained at historically low levels in both adult groups. Past-month and daily alcohol use continued a decade-long decline among those 19 to 30 years old, with binge drinking reaching all-time lows.

Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction

They may have a different sense of self, feeling that they have no personal boundaries and are one with the universe—what some researchers call “oceanic self-boundlessness”.4,6  This experience can be blissful, but it may also be frightening, and cause fear or panic. For the first time in 2023, 19- to 30-year-old female respondents reported a higher prevalence of past-year cannabis use than male respondents in the same age group, reflecting a reversal of the gap between sexes. Conversely, male respondents 35 to 50 years old maintained a higher prevalence of past-year cannabis use than female respondents of the same age group, consistent with what’s been observed for the past decade. This video for middle school students describes how synthetic cannabinoids, called K2 or Spice, affect the brain and the body. Check out the Mind Matters Series with other drugs and the body related videos and other teaching tools. NIDA Director Dr. Nora Volkow explains why we study teen drug use and shares a message to parents & teen influencers.

• A person who has a severe substance use disorder, also known as addiction, finds it very hard or even impossible to control their drug use.
• While these 2023 estimates are not statistically different from those of 2022, they do reflect five- and 10-year increases for both age groups.
• Information on the use of psychedelic and dissociative drugs is collected by several national surveys.
• Because the patent information and biomedical literature are public, the step-by-step recipes for making specific drugs are freely available and can be misused.
• Information provided by NIDA is not a substitute for professional medical care or legal consultation.

The institute also supports clinical investigations into psilocybin as a therapeutic substance. These include studies on its effectiveness and safety as a treatment for substance use disorders and to help people quit smoking. NIDA researchers and grantees collaborate to identify how these emerging drugs work and their potential health effects, including those that have the potential to impact the overdose crisis. NIDA also supports the National Drug Early Warning System (NDEWS) to track emerging substances and their impact on drug-related emergency calls.

My lab stays on top of NPS trends and investigates how these drugs affect the body. We identify the precise receptor sites where an NPS binds in brain tissue, then we examine its behavioral and physiological effects in rodent models. We publish our results in peer-reviewed scientific journals as quickly as we can to stay current with the shifting drug supply.