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About the CPR

The Center for Psychedelic Research (CPR) at UC San Diego fosters research to quantify the psychological, physiological and neural effects, medical value, and transformative properties of psychedelic  states of consciousness via cross-species, translational approaches.

Existing tools for dealing with mental and physical pain have failed to address the myriad challenges people face. Research on the brain, mind, and consciousness is in need of new breakthroughs to advance fundamental insight and to promote genuine alleviation of suffering. Psychedelics represent a transformational opportunity.

A massive societal upswing in psychedelic interest and use has been fueled by the demand for better treatments for intractable conditions, the ability of psychedelics to catalyze personal insight and illuminate the workings of consciousness and cognition, and recognition of the wisdom of indigenous healing practices going back centuries. There is an urgent need for sound empirical science to advance our understanding of how these compounds work and in what ways they can be administered safely.

The mission of CPR is to holistically study these substances and psychedelic states of consciousness, via rigorous, cutting-edge scientific approaches, in order to create change in the clinic and beyond. Starting in 2020, initially as the Psychedelics and Health Research Initiative, and situated at one of the top neuroscience and psychiatric institutions in the world that is repeatedly ranked #1 in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, the CPR has assembled a premier team of interdisciplinary researchers with unique capabilities and expertise in clinical and preclinical neuroscience.

Contact

Questions? Please reach out to us at psychedelicsresearch@health.ucsd.edu.