Research timelines
Psychedelic research timelines
Blossom has always been a good place to find psychedelic research. I wanted a way to see it.
That is what these timelines are for. Each one plots a single research story from one end to the other: the papers, the trials, and the policy and drug development that ran alongside them, from the start of the twentieth century through to the readouts still scheduled. Psilocybin is below in full. Keep scrolling and you will find the other compounds, and then the clinical topics, which cover what these compounds are actually being researched for, from PTSD to treatment-resistant depression.
Have a look around.
Psilocybin research timeline
Isolated in 1958, banned in 1970, restarted in 2001.
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Psilocybin
The long return: a research journey
Compounds (9)
One molecule, followed from its first synthesis to its current programmes. These are the arcs where a single compound carries the story.
5-MeO-DMT
From a 1936 synthesis to a $2.8bn acquisition.
1936 to 2029 · 30 milestones
Psilocybin
Isolated in 1958, banned in 1970, restarted in 2001.
1958 to 2029 · 32 milestones
MDMA
Patented in 1912, criminalised in 1985, and rejected by the FDA in 2024 after the most complete filing psychedelic medicine has ever assembled.
1912 to 2029 · 32 milestones
LSD
Eighty-eight years, one prohibition, and 441 papers against 51 trials.
1938 to 2029 · 32 milestones
Ketamine
An anaesthetic from 1962 that became psychiatry’s fastest-acting antidepressant, an approved nasal spray, and a private clinic industry running well ahead of its own evidence.
1962 to 2031 · 39 milestones
Ibogaine
Nine registered trials against seventy-nine papers.
1864 to 2027 · 28 milestones
DMT
Twenty-five registered trials against one hundred and fifty-three papers.
1931 to 2029 · 32 milestones
Ayahuasca
Two hundred and fifty papers against sixteen trials.
1851 to 2029 · 28 milestones
Esketamine
Half of a 1962 anaesthetic, separated out, delivered up the nose, and turned into the first genuinely new antidepressant mechanism approved in decades.
1962 to 2029 · 24 milestones
Clinical topics (29)
The same record read the other way round: what has actually been tried for one condition, across every compound at once. Useful when the question is about a patient group rather than a molecule.
Depressive Disorders research timeline
The psychedelic research story across depressive conditions
Hover any marker to preview its callout on the canvas, then click to pin it. Pinned is what stays open, fills this panel with the full context and links, and is what an export captures. Landmarks stay labelled on the canvas so the exported image reads on its own.
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Exports rasterise the live SVG, so whatever you have toggled is what you get.
Depressive Disorders
The psychedelic research story across depressive conditions
Depression and mood
Depressive Disorders
The psychedelic research story across depressive conditions
1997 to 2029 · 31 milestones
Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)
The modern psychedelic and rapid-acting antidepressant story in MDD
1997 to 2029 · 17 milestones
Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD)
The psychedelic research story in treatment-resistant depression
1997 to 2029 · 21 milestones
Bipolar Disorder
A small and unusually cautious psychedelic treatment record
2009 to 2028 · 5 milestones
Peripartum
Postpartum depression studies at the edge of psychedelic development
2017 to 2027 · 5 milestones
Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD)
The sparse psychedelic research record around premenstrual symptoms
2022 to 2027 · 3 milestones
Suicidality
Rapid symptom reduction, difficult endpoints and a narrow evidence base
2008 to 2029 · 8 milestones
Anxiety, trauma and OCD
Anxiety Disorders
From illness-related anxiety to the first pivotal LSD programme
1965 to 2029 · 14 milestones
PTSD
The MDMA programme that reached the FDA, and the field that continued after rejection
2000 to 2029 · 14 milestones
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
One landmark pilot followed by a long, still-small replication effort
1998 to 2027 · 6 milestones
Palliative & End-of-Life Distress
The oldest clinical psychedelic question, revisited with modern trials
1965 to 2027 · 6 milestones
Substance use
Substance Use Disorders (SUD)
From LSD for alcoholism and ibogaine detoxification to modern controlled trials
1962 to 2029 · 17 milestones
Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD)
The psychedelic research story in alcohol use disorder
1966 to 2027 · 12 milestones
Opioid Use Disorder (OUD)
The ibogaine story, its cardiac constraint and the search for safer analogues
1962 to 2027 · 8 milestones
Tobacco/Nicotine Use Disorder (TUD)
A small psilocybin cessation programme tested against the nicotine patch
2008 to 2027 · 6 milestones
Pain and neurology
Chronic Pain
A patchwork of analgesia studies, headache research and mind–pain interventions
1966 to 2028 · 7 milestones
Fibromyalgia
A negative esketamine result followed by small psychedelic feasibility studies
2012 to 2027 · 5 milestones
Headache Disorders (Cluster & Migraine)
A patient-led observation becomes a controlled psilocybin and LSD programme
2006 to 2027 · 7 milestones
Neurocognitive Disorders
Mostly mechanism and case evidence, with clinical programmes only now emerging
2001 to 2028 · 7 milestones
Neurological Injury
Neuroprotection hypotheses meet small brain-injury and rehabilitation studies
2015 to 2027 · 7 milestones
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Veteran cohorts, persistent post-concussive symptoms and unresolved safety questions
2015 to 2027 · 7 milestones
Other conditions
Schizophrenia
Psychedelics as a psychosis model, and the limits of that analogy
1952 to 2027 · 6 milestones
Eating Disorders
Qualitative ayahuasca reports lead into small anorexia and binge-eating trials
2017 to 2028 · 8 milestones
Personality Disorders
Emotion regulation signals lead into the first diagnosis-specific pilots
2018 to 2028 · 7 milestones
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)
A very new clinical record across psilocybin, MDMA and ketamine
2018 to 2028 · 6 milestones
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
From unethical historical experimentation to adult-led social-anxiety research
1960 to 2027 · 6 milestones
Populations
Adolescents
Historical exposure, observational cohorts and a cautious modern trial record
1960 to 2027 · 7 milestones
Older Adults
Late-life depression first, healthy ageing and cognition only now
2015 to 2028 · 6 milestones
Veterans
PTSD, blast injury and public-sector psychedelic research
2004 to 2029 · 9 milestones
Where the numbers come from
Trial and paper counts on each timeline are read live from the research database, so they move as records are added. The milestones themselves do not. They are selected by hand, which means a trial earns a marker because it changed what the field could claim, not because it exists in a registry. Anything dated in the future is limited to studies with public guidance on timing, and is shown as planned rather than promised. For the aggregate view of the same database, see the research snapshot.