A Maryland research institution is receiving nearly $10 million in federal funding to track what classic psychedelic drugs do to the brain over time, a study designed to fill one of the biggest holes in a field that has generated enormous scientific excitement but has repeatedly stumbled when seeking regulatory approval.
The nearly $9.96 million award comes from ARPA-H, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, which was created by Congress in 2022 with a mandate to fund the kinds of high-risk, unconventional research that traditional federal science agencies tend to avoid. The project will track effects across three populations: people with psychiatric conditions, people with neurological conditions, and healthy volunteers, using multiple measurement approaches to build a detailed picture of how psychedelics affect the brain over an extended period.
That kind of longitudinal data has been conspicuously absent from the field. Most psychedelic studies to date have followed participants for weeks or months, not years, and have worked with small sample sizes. The consequence became clear in August 2024, when the FDA rejected MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD, citing inadequate safety data and methodological concerns. The decision sent a signal to researchers: promising short-term results are not enough.
The research sits squarely in Maryland's scientific backyard. Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore opened the first dedicated psychedelic research center at a major U.S. institution in 2019, and its researchers have produced some of the most widely cited studies showing that psilocybin can produce rapid, lasting improvements in treatment-resistant depression and addiction. The state also hosts NIH's sprawling Bethesda campus, the FDA's headquarters in Silver Spring, and now ARPA-H's own operations, creating an unusual concentration of the funders, regulators, and researchers all shaping this field simultaneously.
Psychedelic compounds including psilocybin and LSD were studied actively in the 1950s and 1960s before being classified as Schedule I substances in 1970, effectively halting research for decades. The modern revival began in earnest in the early 2000s, and has since gained traction in states including Oregon, which legalized supervised psilocybin services in 2020, and Colorado, which followed in 2022. Federal research funding has lagged that policy momentum, making ARPA-H a natural home for a study of this scale and ambition.
Similar work is gaining ground elsewhere: [USC recently received $2 million](articles/usc-lands-2m-federal-grant-to-test-psychedelic-therapy-paired-with-mindfulness) to test psychedelic therapy combined with mindfulness practices, part of a broader wave of federally funded research trying to put the field on firmer scientific footing.
The specific recipient institution in Maryland was not identified in publicly available award details. As the study gets underway, its findings could shape whether the FDA eventually clears psychedelic-based treatments for clinical use, and on what timeline.
