Emory University announced on Apr. 30 that it has been named a national research site in a $21 million National Institutes of Health initiative to study the safety and potential benefits of psychedelics for older adults. The INSPIRE Network, which stands for INnovative Science of Psychedelic Inclusive Research in Elders, is the first federally funded clinical research program dedicated specifically to psychedelic studies in people age 65 and older.
The topic is significant because chronic pain affects many older adults, yet treatment options are often limited and risky. This project aims to address this gap by evaluating whether psychedelic-assisted therapies could provide safer alternatives.
The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine will receive $4 million from the NIH as part of its role within the INSPIRE Network. The network is led by the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus with principal investigators at New York University and the University of California San Francisco, while Emory joins other sites including Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (a Harvard Medical School affiliate) and the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
The five-year project will start with Phase I, which evaluates safety and efficacy indicators such as heart rate, blood pressure, cognition, mobility, balance, and delirium risk in healthy volunteers ages 65-85 who receive psilocybin or LSD along with psychological support. Participants will also use Fabla—a voice diary smartphone app developed at Emory—for daily reporting during trials. In Phase II (years three through five), two multi-site clinical trials will test psilocybin therapy for chronic low back pain and LSD-assisted therapy for cancer-related bone pain.
“Chronic pain becomes more common and more debilitating as people age, yet current treatment options are often limited and come with significant risks,” says Ali John Zarrabi, MD, director of psychedelic research in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine, assistant professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine and INSPIRE site-principal investigator at Emory. “This research offers an important opportunity to evaluate non-opioid alternatives that could transform the way we care for older adults. With this level of NIH support, we are helping lead a new era of rigorous patient-centered psychedelic science.”
“We built Fabla so that participants could tell researchers about their daily experiences throughout the study in their own words, just as naturally as sending a voice memo to a friend,” explains Deanna Kaplan a co-investigator on the Emory INSPIRE team and assistant professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at Emory.
“The data we generate will be crucial for determining whether these therapies are not only effective but also safe and accessible for the populations that may benefit most,” says Zarrabi.
Participant enrollment for Phase I at Emory is scheduled to begin May 2026. More information can be found at https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT07516405.
