Anxiety DisordersAdolescentsPTSDSubstance Use Disorders (SUD)Palliative & End-of-Life DistressAutism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)CreativitySafety & Risk ManagementDepressive DisordersMDMA

History and Future of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)

This review (2014) outlines the historic development of the non-profit association MAPS in its mission to develop medical, legal, and cultural contexts for people to benefit from the careful uses of psychedelics and marijuana. These efforts include the development of psychedelics into prescription medicines, training therapists, establishing treatment centers, supporting scientific research into spirituality, creativity, and neuroscience, and educating the public about the risks and benefits of psychedelic substances. They introduced the first double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in 1994 and had planned for FDA prescription approval in 2021. Their ongoing efforts include plans for introducing (LSD)-assisted psychotherapies, parallel to harm-reduction strategies, such as the Zendo Project.

Authors

Rick Doblin
Lisa Jerome
Amy Emerson

Published

March 11, 2014

Journal of Psychoactive Drugs

meta Study

Links

Read Paper DOI Google Scholar

Abstract

This article describes the teenage vision of the founder of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) that humanity’s future would be aided by the therapeutic and spiritual potential of psychedelic substances. The article traces the trajectory of MAPS from inception in 1986 to its present, noting future goals with respect to research, outreach, and harm reduction. MAPS was created as a non-profit psychedelic pharmaceutical company in response to the 1985 scheduling of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). Overcoming many hurdles, MAPS developed the first double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and plans for FDA prescription approval in 2021. MAPS’ program of research expanded to include a trial of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD)-assisted psychotherapy for anxiety when facing life-threatening illness, observational studies of ibogaine in the treatment of addiction, and studies of MDMA for social anxiety in people with autism spectrum disorders. MAPS meets the challenges of drug development through a clinical research team led by a former Novartis drug development professional experienced in the conduct, monitoring, and analysis of clinical trials. MAPS’ harm-reduction efforts are intended to avoid backlash and build a post-prohibition world by assisting non-medical users to transform difficult psychedelic experiences into opportunities for growth.

Available with Blossom Pro

Research Summary of 'History and Future of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)'

Introduction

Emerson and colleagues frame the paper as a historical account of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), describing its origins in the mid-1980s and the organisational response to the criminalisation of MDMA. The introduction emphasises the founder Rick Doblin's personal motivations—shaped by encounters with LSD and by political and moral concerns about dehumanising social processes—and situates MAPS' mission within a wider ‘‘psychedelic renaissance’’ of renewed clinical research into psychedelics and entheogens. The paper sets out to trace MAPS' trajectory from its precursor organisations through regulatory struggles, early clinical and safety research, and the development of an infrastructure intended to advance psychedelics as prescription medicines. It highlights both scientific milestones (pilot and Phase II clinical trials with MDMA and other psychedelics) and parallel activities in therapist training and harm reduction, with an explicit aim of explaining how MAPS intends to move toward potential regulatory approval and broader clinical implementation.