Psychedelic research timeline
Neurocognitive Disorders: the psychedelic research timeline
The neurocognitive timeline is not an established dementia-treatment story. It moves from cognitive-risk and mechanism studies into a few Parkinson’s, mild-cognitive-impairment and ageing experiments, most of them still early or planned.
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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Characterising cognition
2001 to 2020Most work measures acute impairment or neuropsychological effects rather than treatment.2003-12
Psilocybin is used to model cognitive deficits
A human pharmacology study measures mismatch negativity and continuous performance under psilocybin. It characterises impairment; it is not treatment research.
Therapeutic hypotheses emerge
2021 onwardsOrphan designation, case reports and small planned trials open several disease-specific questions.2021-04
PharmaDrug
The first orphan drug designation for a psychedelic
The FDA grants DMT orphan drug designation for ischaemia-reperfusion injury in organ transplantation, a use that has nothing to do with the psychedelic effect.
DMT binds the sigma-1 receptor, a chaperone protein involved in how cells handle stress, and preclinical work suggests that engagement protects tissue deprived of oxygen. That is a completely separate pharmacology from the 5-HT2A agonism responsible for the visionary state, and it points at a completely separate set of indications: stroke, traumatic brain injury, organ preservation.
Orphan designation is a regulatory incentive rather than a scientific verdict. It confers seven years of market exclusivity and reduced fees for a drug targeting a small population, and it is granted on plausibility, not on evidence of benefit. Reading it as approval would be a mistake.
It is still a notable marker, because it was the first such designation for any psychedelic compound and it established that DMT could be developed on a non-psychedelic rationale. Two companies took that route. Neither is still pursuing it with any urgency, as the 2026 marker further right on this canvas records.
2025-03
Johns Hopkins University
ended earlyJohns Hopkins study withdrawn
The Trifecta research study is withdrawn from the registry before enrolling anyone.
Withdrawn is a specific registry status: registered, then closed without a single participant enrolled. With only nine ibogaine trials in existence, losing one before it starts is a material fraction of the record.
Records like this are quietly dropped from most pipeline charts. Leaving it visible is the honest choice, because registered intent and delivered research are different quantities and the gap between them is larger for ibogaine than for almost any compound in this database.
2026-01
An ibogaine Parkinson’s case is published
A single case report describes ibogaine in Parkinson’s disease. It can generate a hypothesis but cannot establish efficacy or safety.
2026-05
A Parkinson’s depression study is scheduled
A Phase II study proposes psilocybin therapy for depression in Parkinson’s disease. Its registry date is planned and it is not yet an efficacy result.
2026-05
An Alzheimer’s case report appears
A case report describes transient multidomain improvement after high-dose psilocybin-containing mushrooms in advanced Alzheimer’s disease. It is anecdotal evidence.
2026-06
Esketamine is proposed for sleep and cognition in MCI
A planned study combines intranasal esketamine and dexmedetomidine for sleep and cognition in older adults with mild-to-moderate cognitive impairment.
Neurocognitive Disorders
Mostly mechanism and case evidence, with clinical programmes only now emerging
Research Landscape
What the registered trials connected to Neurocognitive Disorders look like when you line them up. Counts come from Blossom’s trial records as of August 2026.
How fast is Neurocognitive Disorders 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 (33 of 33 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 33 Neurocognitive Disorders trials Blossom tracks. Orange marks trials recruiting or opening.
- Recruiting or opening
- 1133%
- Underway, not recruiting
- 26%
- Completed
- 1545%
- Stopped early
- 13%
- Unknown / other
- 412%
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 Neurocognitive Disorders 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 97 papers Blossom links to Neurocognitive Disorders 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 Neurocognitive Disorders research grown?
SourcedTracked papers by publication year; 11 earlier papers published before 2012. Click a year for the running total.
Don't read as total output: only the 97 of 97 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 Neurocognitive Disorders?
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 Neurocognitive Disorders 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.