Northwell opens Center for Psychedelics Research and Treatment at Zucker Hillside Hospital with planned trials on psilocybin, MDMA, ketamine and cannabis

Northwell Health opened the Center for Psychedelics Research and Treatment at Zucker Hillside Hospital to study psychedelic and related therapies for mental health. The facility, led by Feinstein Institutes researchers Dr. John Kane and Nehal Vadhan, includes a high tech laboratory plus a driving simulator and modular bar and living spaces to evaluate effects in realistic social environments, with cameras and control rooms for safe observation. Research priorities focus on psilocybin for anxiety, MDMA for schizophrenia, and work on ketamine and cannabis for conditions such as anxiety, depression, and substance use disorders. Initial projects include a controlled clinical trial of psilocybin for social and generalized anxiety disorders, an UCLA collaboration assessing MDMA safety and tolerability in schizophrenia, and an ecological momentary assessment of naturalistic psychedelic use among psychiatric outpatients and healthy controls.