Psychedelic research timeline
Tobacco/Nicotine Use Disorder (TUD): the psychedelic research timeline
The nicotine timeline is short enough to show every meaningful clinical step. An encouraging open-label psilocybin pilot eventually led to a randomised comparison with a nicotine patch; ketamine and DMT remain exploratory side branches.
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 psilocybin pilot
2008 to 2020A behavioural programme with psychedelic sessions produces an early cessation signal.2008-09
The first psilocybin cessation pilot opens
A pilot combines psilocybin sessions with a structured smoking-cessation intervention. Its uncontrolled design can establish feasibility, not comparative efficacy.
Testing it against treatment
2021 onwardsDMT and ketamine pilots appear while psilocybin reaches a randomised nicotine-patch comparison.2021-01
DMT is studied in people who smoke
A Phase I study examines DMT safety and acute effects in otherwise healthy people who smoke. It is not a cessation-efficacy trial.
2022-08
A controlled psilocybin TUD study begins
A Phase II study directly tests psilocybin for tobacco use disorder, moving the programme beyond the original open-label cohort.
2023-05
Ketamine is paired with motivational therapy
A Phase I study combines ketamine with motivational enhancement therapy for tobacco use disorder.
2026-03
JAMA Network Open
Smoking cessation, retested against the patch
The 2014 result that reported 80% abstinence is finally tested against nicotine replacement in a randomised pilot.
Johns Hopkins’ 2014 open-label pilot in tobacco addiction reported abstinence rates far above anything nicotine replacement achieves, and that single number has been quoted in almost every popular account of psychedelic medicine since. A randomised pilot comparing psilocybin against a nicotine patch publishes in JAMA Network Open in March 2026.
This is what replication looks like, and it took twelve years. Pilot randomised trials are designed to establish feasibility rather than to settle efficacy, so the honest reading is that the comparison has finally started, not that it has finished.
The pattern generalises across this canvas. The striking early numbers came from small, unblinded, single-site studies. Every time one has been tested against an active comparator, the gap has narrowed.
2026-04
A randomised ketamine crossover study reports
An active-placebo crossover study reports the effects of a single sub-anaesthetic ketamine dose in tobacco use disorder, keeping this branch exploratory.
Tobacco/Nicotine Use Disorder (TUD)
A small psilocybin cessation programme tested against the nicotine patch
Research Landscape
What the registered trials connected to Tobacco/Nicotine Use Disorder (TUD) 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 5 Tobacco/Nicotine Use Disorder (TUD) 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 64 papers Blossom links to Tobacco/Nicotine Use Disorder (TUD) 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 Tobacco/Nicotine Use Disorder (TUD) research grown?
SourcedTracked papers by publication year; 4 earlier papers published before 2012. Click a year for the running total.
Don't read as total output: only the 64 of 64 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 Tobacco/Nicotine Use Disorder (TUD)?
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 Tobacco/Nicotine Use Disorder (TUD) 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.