Psychedelic research timeline
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): the psychedelic research timeline
The ASD timeline changes population and purpose over time. Early LSD studies exposed children under obsolete standards; modern work enrols consenting adults and usually targets social anxiety, depression or mechanism rather than autism itself.
Milestones are editorially selected from Blossom’s research catalogue. Future markers are limited to important trials with dated public guidance and are shown as planned, not promised.
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The historical record
1960 to 1971Children receive LSD in studies that would not meet modern ethical standards.1960-01
ended earlyLSD given to autistic children
An open observational study dosing children who could not consent. It is in the database because it happened.
Several groups gave LSD to autistic and institutionalised children in the early 1960s, reporting improvements in mood and social contact from unblinded clinician observation. The work continued into the early 1970s.
There is no defensible reading of this by modern standards, and the results are worthless as evidence: no controls, no blinding, no consent, and outcome measures rated by the people who wanted the treatment to work. It is on the canvas because a timeline that quietly drops its own field’s worst episodes cannot be trusted on the good ones either.
Adult, indication-specific research
2014 onwardsMDMA and psilocybin studies focus on social anxiety, depression and mechanism.2014-01
An adult MDMA social-anxiety pilot begins
A Phase II pilot tests MDMA-assisted therapy for social anxiety in autistic adults, changing both the target and consent model from the historical studies.
2022-12
PSILAUT studies autistic and non-autistic adults
A controlled study compares psilocybin responses in adults with and without autism, focusing on mechanism and tolerability rather than treating autism.
2024-12
Psilocybin is studied for depression in autism
PAT-DA begins testing psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression in autistic adults, with brain and cognitive measures around the intervention.
2025-12
Definium Therapeutics
MM402 opens in autism
A second R-MDMA programme starts a Phase 2a in autistic adults, with topline guided for late 2026.
Definium Therapeutics completed a Phase 1 single-ascending-dose study of MM402, also R-MDMA, in October 2024 and opened a Phase 2a in autism spectrum disorder in December 2025. Topline is guided for the fourth quarter of 2026.
Autism is a contentious indication and the framing deserves care. The target is social anxiety and social difficulty in autistic adults, not autism itself, and a substantial part of the autistic community objects to research framed as treating the condition. The earlier randomised pilot in autistic adults with social anxiety, published in 2018, is the evidence this builds on.
Two independent companies pursuing the same enantiomer in adjacent social-anxiety indications is the clearest signal on the canvas of where capital went after August 2024. It went to the parts of MDMA that can be patented and tested without a therapy protocol attached.
2026-06
SAMATI
Social anxiety results publish
An academic randomised trial of MDMA-assisted therapy in social anxiety disorder reports, open-label and wait-list controlled.
The SAMATI study publishes in June 2026: randomised, but open-label and controlled against a wait list rather than against a placebo. A wait-list control tells you how much better treated participants did than untreated ones, which includes everything about being in a trial and receiving attention.
It is the weakest of the common control designs and it is being used here because it is honest about what it can show. After 2024, small academic groups are less inclined to claim more than their design supports.
It also lands in the same indication as both commercial R-MDMA programmes, three months after one of them reported. Social anxiety is quietly becoming the second front for this compound.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
From unethical historical experimentation to adult-led social-anxiety research
Research Landscape
What the registered trials connected to Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) look like when you line them up. Counts come from Blossom’s trial records as of August 2026.
What's live right now, and what stopped?
SourcedRegistry status of all 8 Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) trials Blossom tracks. Orange marks trials recruiting or opening.
Don't read stopped trials as failures: trials end early for funding, recruitment, and strategy reasons too. Status is as last synced from the registry; some 'recruiting' trials may already have finished.
Publication Landscape
How the 27 papers Blossom links to Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) line up by year, compound and journal. This is the psychedelic-relevant literature in Blossom's records as of August 2026, not the condition's full medical literature.
How has Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) research grown?
SourcedTracked papers by publication year; 2 earlier papers published before 2010. Click a year for the running total.
Don't read as total output: only the 27 of 27 tracked papers with a recorded publication date are counted, and these are the psychedelic-relevant papers Blossom tracks, not a complete bibliography. The current year is still filling in.
Which compounds shape Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)?
SourcedTracked papers per compound. Orange marks the largest literature.
A paper studying several compounds counts once per compound, and placebo comparator arms are not shown. These are the psychedelic-relevant papers Blossom tracks.
Where is Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) research published?
SourcedTracked papers per journal. Orange marks the most-used journal.
Counts the journal recorded on each tracked paper; papers without a journal on file are omitted. Blossom tracks psychedelic-relevant papers rather than each journal's full catalogue.