Psychedelic research timeline
Suicidality: the psychedelic research timeline
Suicidality is often measured inside depression trials but is rarely the primary psychedelic indication. Ketamine and esketamine dominate the direct evidence; the classic-psychedelic record remains mostly secondary or exploratory.
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 rapid-reduction hypothesis
2008 to 2016Small ketamine studies ask whether suicidal ideation can move within hours.2008-05
An intranasal ketamine antisuicidal trial opens
A controlled study in people with depression and alcohol misuse directly tests rapid antisuicidal effects, putting speed rather than durable relapse prevention at the centre.
Esketamine tests an acute population
2017 to 2023ASPIRE enrols people at imminent risk and separates symptom change from prevention.2017-06
Janssen Pharmaceuticals
ASPIRE I and II enrol actively suicidal patients
Two Phase 3 trials, 456 participants between them, in people assessed to be at imminent risk of suicide. Both ran alongside comprehensive standard care.
Trials in actively suicidal patients are rare because ethics committees are cautious and sponsors are more cautious still. Everyone in both studies received hospitalisation and standard care; the randomisation was to esketamine or placebo on top of that.
Running two of them was a genuine commitment, and it produced the evidence base for an indication no other antidepressant holds. It is the clearest example on this canvas of commercial development going somewhere academic funding had not.
A parallel paediatric study in adolescents at imminent suicide risk opened four months later and took until 2023 to complete, which is a fair indication of how hard this population is to recruit and follow.
2020-05
Janssen Pharmaceuticals
ASPIRE I and II report
Both trials show rapid reduction in depressive symptoms. Neither demonstrates a durable effect on suicidality itself.
The distinction matters and is regularly lost. The primary endpoint in both studies was change in the MADRS depression score at 24 hours, not suicide attempts or death. Esketamine beat placebo on that endpoint in both trials, by roughly four points.
On the clinician-rated suicidality measure, the difference between groups was not significant at 24 hours in either study. The indication is named after suicidal ideation; the evidence supports rapid symptom reduction in people who have it.
That is still a meaningful thing to be able to do for a hospitalised patient in crisis, and it should not be dismissed. It is simply not the same as showing that the drug reduces suicide, and no trial of any antidepressant has been powered to show that.
The psychedelic edges
2024 onwardsWithdrawals and small studies underline how little direct evidence exists.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.
2024-12
ended earlyA paediatric ketamine trial is terminated
KETA4SI, designed to test ketamine for suicidality in paediatric emergency care, stops before delivering the larger answer its population needed.
2025-03
A young-person self-harm study begins
PsiloIMAGINE recruits young people with self-harm for a Phase I psychedelic-augmented mental-imagery intervention. It is an early safety study, not efficacy evidence.
2025-04
Neuropsychopharmacology
Vaporised DMT reports an antidepressant signal
A Phase 2a in treatment-resistant depression reports rapid and sustained antidepressant effects from vaporised DMT, the first efficacy readout for the compound itself.
Five years after the first registered trial, DMT has an efficacy result. It is Phase 2a, so it is small and exploratory, and it reports both rapid onset and effects that persist beyond the day of dosing, which is the pattern the whole field is looking for and rarely finds in a single study.
Treatment-resistant depression is a demanding population and a forgiving one at the same time. Demanding, because these patients have already failed several adequate trials of standard treatment. Forgiving, because expectancy runs high in people who have exhausted the alternatives and know they are receiving something novel, and an unblinded psychedelic maximises that.
A companion randomised double-blind study of vaporised DMT published two months later gives the safety and subjective-effects picture from a controlled design. Read together, the two make a reasonable case for proceeding, and no case at all for concluding.
2026-06
Ketamine plus DBT is registered
A Phase II study combines ketamine with dialectical behavioural therapy for suicidality in people with treatment-resistant depression and borderline personality disorder.
Suicidality
Rapid symptom reduction, difficult endpoints and a narrow evidence base
Research Landscape
What the registered trials connected to Suicidality look like when you line them up. Counts come from Blossom’s trial records as of August 2026.
How fast is Suicidality 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 (98 of 98 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 98 Suicidality trials Blossom tracks. Orange marks trials recruiting or opening.
- Recruiting or opening
- 3132%
- Underway, not recruiting
- 22%
- Completed
- 3637%
- Stopped early
- 1414%
- Unknown / other
- 1515%
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 Suicidality 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 244 papers Blossom links to Suicidality 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 Suicidality research grown?
SourcedTracked papers by publication year; 1 earlier paper published before 2012. Click a year for the running total.
Don't read as total output: only the 244 of 244 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 Suicidality?
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 Suicidality 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.