Psychedelic research timeline
Bipolar Disorder: the psychedelic research timeline
Most psychedelic depression programmes exclude bipolar disorder because of mania risk. The resulting timeline is dominated by ketamine, one terminated 5-MeO-DMT programme and a handful of carefully bounded new studies.
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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Ketamine carries the evidence
2009 to 2022Randomised add-on studies establish a rapid signal in bipolar depression.2010-08
Archives of General Psychiatry
Randomised add-on trial in bipolar depression
The NIMH group extends the finding past unipolar depression, in Archives of General Psychiatry.
Bipolar depression is harder to treat and easier to destabilise, because antidepressants can tip some patients into mania. Showing a rapid effect there, in a randomised add-on design, widened the claim considerably.
A replication in Biological Psychiatry followed in 2012. Two independent randomised results in the harder population is a meaningfully stronger position than one, and this is roughly the point at which clinicians outside research settings started asking how to get hold of it.
Psychedelic programmes test the boundary
2023 onwardsTerminations and small planned studies show how cautious the field remains.2023-04
GH Research
ended earlyBipolar II (terminated)
A second Phase II indication stops in the same year it starts.
Two terminations within five weeks of each other narrowed GH Research back toward its treatment-resistant depression core.
That kind of contraction is common and rarely announced as such. What the canvas shows is a sponsor testing three indications in early 2023 and holding one by the end of it. The surviving programme is the one that reads out below.
2024-03
NRx Pharmaceuticals
NRX-101 hits one endpoint and misses the other
A 58% reduction in time to sustained remission from suicidality, and no differentiation on the antidepressant endpoint.
The suicidality result reached p=0.05, and akathisia (a distressing inner restlessness that independently raises suicide risk) fell by 76%. The primary antidepressant endpoint did not separate.
Whether that is a success depends entirely on which endpoint you think the drug is for. NRx is pursuing suicidality as a registrational claim, and a 2018 Breakthrough Therapy Designation suggests the FDA is open to it.
Mixed results are the most common outcome in psychiatry trials and the least often shown on timelines. This one is here as it stands, with both halves.
2025-06
A bipolar II psilocybin study is registered
PAT-BD-01 proposes psilocybin-assisted therapy for treatment-resistant depression in bipolar II disorder. The registry still lists it as not yet recruiting, so registration is not evidence that dosing began.
2026-10
plannedAdjunctive oral ketamine study is scheduled
A Phase II study of adjunctive oral KET-AD capsules in treatment-resistant bipolar depression is registered to begin. Its date is a registry plan, not a result.
Bipolar Disorder
A small and unusually cautious psychedelic treatment record
Research Landscape
What the registered trials connected to Bipolar Disorder look like when you line them up. Counts come from Blossom’s trial records as of August 2026.
How fast is Bipolar Disorder research growing?
SourcedRegistered trials by recorded study-start year; 3 earlier trials began before 2012. Click a year for the running total.
Don't read as total research effort: only registered trials with a recorded start date are counted (51 of 51 tracked). Recent years under-count because of registration lag; striped bars are still filling in or are planned starts.
What's live right now, and what stopped?
SourcedRegistry status of all 51 Bipolar Disorder trials Blossom tracks. Orange marks trials recruiting or opening.
- Recruiting or opening
- 1020%
- Underway, not recruiting
- 48%
- Completed
- 2243%
- Stopped early
- 816%
- Unknown / other
- 714%
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.
Which compounds carry the Bipolar Disorder research?
SourcedTrials per compound. Orange marks the most-studied compound.
Don't read shares as adding to 100%: a trial testing several compounds counts once per compound, and placebo comparator arms are not shown. Trial volume signals research attention, not evidence quality.
Publication Landscape
How the 125 papers Blossom links to Bipolar Disorder 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 Bipolar Disorder research grown?
SourcedTracked papers by publication year; 2 earlier papers published before 2012. Click a year for the running total.
Don't read as total output: only the 125 of 125 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 Bipolar Disorder?
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 Bipolar Disorder 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.