PSYCH NEWS - 27/04/2026

April 2026 has been a landmark month for psychedelic medicine. The most significant development was US President Donald Trump signing an executive order to accelerate research and expand patient access to psychedelic therapies, fast-tracking FDA review of psilocybin, MDMA, and ibogaine for conditions including depression, PTSD, and opioid withdrawal. Meanwhile, the Cambridge Psychedelic Research Group continued building momentum with multiple active clinical trials, and a major international study identified a shared neural fingerprint across five psychedelic substances, marking the largest brain imaging study of its kind to date.

However, progress has been accompanied by serious concerns. Indigenous leaders have criticised Trump's order as "biopiracy", warning that communities who have long held these medicines sacred risk being left behind as commercial interests take over. MAPS, celebrating its 40th anniversary, echoed these worries, with founders cautioning that legal access is not the same as equitable access, and that the therapeutic integrity of these treatments risks being stripped away in pursuit of profit. As the field accelerates, the central challenge is ensuring that the benefits are shared fairly and that healing – not commerce – remains the driving purpose.

April has been a pretty astounding month for the psychedelic industry as a whole, with perhaps the most significant development being US President Donald Trump’s declaration: “Can I have some, please?” in relation to ibogaine. On the same weekend as psychonauts the world over celebrate Albert Hoffman’s “Bicycle Day” (in commemoration of the world’s first recorded LSD trip in 1943), Trump signed a landmark executive order, with the controversial podcaster Joe Rogan and Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, standing behind him, both strong proponents of ibogaine therapy. Trump approved the acceleration of psychedelic research to increase patient access to these new treatments.

As a result, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will now begin to fast-track the review and approval process for three psychedelic-assisted therapy candidates, which have already received “breakthrough therapy designations”. These are:

• Psilocybin for the treatment of multiple forms of depression.
• MDMA for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
• Ibogaine for traumatic brain injury/opioid withdrawal.

The order states more broadly that potential psychedelic treatments as a whole will become more widely available.

“The FDA and Drug Enforcement Administration shall facilitate and establish a pathway for eligible patients to access psychedelic drugs, including ibogaine compounds, under the Right to Try Act.”

This sets up some potential conflicts between the FDA and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), which has previously stated that “schedule I compounds are ineligible for right to try”.

The order instructs the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to push at least 50 million dollars to states which have already, or are in the process of developing, programmes to study psychedelic drugs as a means to tackle serious mental illness.

It is a huge step towards easing restrictions on research, and one which “most people didn’t have…on their bingo cards” for the Trump administration. However, while on the surface this may seem universally positive, there are worries that the Indigenous communities which have guarded substances like ibogaine and psilocybin will not be fairly compensated.

The former chair of the Native American Church of North America, Sandor Iron Rope, described the executive order as “biopiracy dressed in clinical language”. He added in a social media post: “The opening for healing is real, but without explicit protections for Indigenous sovereignty, religious freedom, traditional knowledge, and equitable benefit-sharing, this order risks repeating one of the oldest patterns in colonial history – taking the medicine and leaving behind the people who made it sacred.”

The psychedelic industry is increasingly defined by who controls the direction of travel, and while this is a positive step forward, we cannot forget the profit incentive.

Though Cambridge University is one of the UK’s leading research universities, it has thus far been uninvolved in the landscape of psychedelic research. However, that changed when Cambridge was granted its Home Office license and established the Cambridge Psychedelic Research Group (CPRG). This officially launched in March 2025. At the time, consultant psychiatrist and principal investigator, Dr Liliana Galindo, stated that Cambridge was “late joining the psychedelic renaissance”, having spent several years navigating various obstacles which “took a long time”. 

One year on the CPRG is now heavily involved in several potentially groundbreaking clinical trials. It is also a part of multiple real-world studies and a key builder of the infrastructure needed to offer psychedelic therapies on the National Health Service (NHS).

The CPRG is a partnership between the University of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT), and Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH). There is a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration, drawing on expertise from the departments of psychiatry, psychology, and pharmacology. Each institution has a different role to play:

• CPFT - the mental health NHS trust and clinical services.
• Cambridge University - academic expertise and research infrastructure.
• CUH - the general hospital.
• NIHR - clinical research facilities.

Many CPRG members hold positions in multiple of these institutions, with communication across departments absolutely key to the initiative’s success.

Currently active trials include:

• Phase 2 trials for methylone in the treatment of PTSD began in November 2024.
• Two psilocybin trials launched in late 2025 and the start of 2026 for the treatment of major depressive disorder and treatment-resistant depression.
• A third psilocybin trial for generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) is scheduled to begin by the end of 2026.
• Phase 2 trials for anorexia utilising MDMA and Internal Family Systems Therapy began in March 2025.
• A clinical trial for MDMA-assisted group therapy for veterans and first responders (this is still fundraising).
• Biological research investigating the impact of psilocybin on inflammation markers and the immune system.
• Neurophenomenological studies using DMT to map brain dynamics against patient symptoms and behaviour.
• Research into adapting psychedelic-assisted therapy for survivors of intimate partner violence.

A recent survey in New Zealand and Australia has found that 88% of the 93 palliative care physicians who responded to the survey support clinical research into psychoactive substances like psilocybin and MDMA. Research is already being undertaken into psychedelics’ effectiveness for the treatment of individuals with terminal cancer, and “is showing positive signs”. Auckland University Associate Professor David Menkes, from Auckland University, told New Zealand publication RNZ that the study has “provided a real strong hint that MDMA can be spectacularly helpful for some individuals who are facing death from cancer”.

Traditional psychiatric treatments often fail to tackle the extreme physical and psychological challenges that terminal patients undergo. While Australia became the first country to formally recognise these substances as medicines in 2023, clinicians in New Zealand are now advocating for local trials as well. Menkes stated in the same interview that advancing research into psychedelics had been limited for far too long by public perception warped by the United States’ drug policy. 

"Psychedelic research, which had been going on in the 50s and 60s, basically stopped for 30 years and has only just been resurrected in the last 10 to 20 years…as a result, we don't really know as much as we need to about…these medicines…who they might benefit, and what the benefit- to-harm ratio might be."

This will necessitate considerable regulatory changes to provide a safe, clinical environment in which these therapies could significantly improve patients’ quality of life.

An “international mega-analysis” has identified a unique “cross-drug neural fingerprint of psychedelic states”, a significant advancement for psychedelic neuroscience.

Researchers from around the world have identified a common neural fingerprint which is shared across five major psychedelic substances:

• LSD
• Psilocybin
• DMT
• Mescaline
• Ayahuasca 

The study combined brain imaging data from more than 500 brain scans from 267 people across 5 countries. It is believed to be “the largest study into psychedelics and the human brain to date”.

While there were differences in the specific mechanisms of action and changes in brain activity, there was a substantial overlap in how the brain regions communicated with one another. Dr Danilo Bzdok, a senior author on the study, from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, stated that:

“All five drugs dissolve the common order, the usual hierarchy of brain systems,” he added. “They flatten the hierarchy and that probably underlies what some people describe as this raw access to one’s own consciousness”.

The usual top-down hierarchy of the brain disappears, which allows for communication between areas of the brain that are usually segregated. Specifically, the researchers saw a strong increase in communication between brain networks involved in higher-level thinking and more primitive networks linked to vision and sensation.

“You have an unleashed cross-talk between brain systems – they are wildly communicating with each other,” Bzdok said. “It’s excessive cross-talk between brain systems.”

Contrary to some previous claims, psychedelics were not seen to “disintegrate” individual brain networks. Rather, the internal connections within some systems weakened, while communication between different systems surged.

The aim of the study is to “provide a solid foundation” necessary for future psychedelic research in an industry which is growing at an extremely rapid pace.

On the 22nd of April 2026, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) marked its 40th anniversary. MAPS was founded (in April 1986) to “advance psychedelic research and knowledge”, and has gone on to raise more than $150 million, supported 45 studies, and played a huge role in shaping the global policy and cultural landscape surrounding the medical use of psychedelics.

MAPS was founded by Rick Doblin, Ph.D. in direct response to a federal government decision he disagreed with on both scientific and moral grounds. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) placed MDMA as a Schedule I substance. This overrode a law judge’s recommendation that it remain available in a therapeutic context. This anniversary is a pivotal moment for the field, and a moment to highlight the progress that has been made. Psychedelic medicine has moved into the mainstream (Trump’s new executive order is testament to this), and research and regulatory approval are accelerating worldwide. 

However, MAPS leadership has highlighted several potential new threats to its progress:

• Therapeutic Component - Rick Doblin expressed concern that companies are beginning to treat psychedelics as simple products, rather than therapeutic tools.

  “My biggest concern now is no longer whether these therapies will be approved, but what they will look like when they arrive, and who will be able to access them. Companies are increasingly minimizing or eliminating the therapeutic component entirely, treating the drug as the product and everything around it as a cost to be cut”.

• Equitable Access - Betty Aldworth, the Co-Executive Director of MAPS, explained that legal access is not the same as equitable access and “building a post-prohibition future rooted in health, consent, dignity, and repair is the work still in front of us”.
• Implementation - Ismaili Ali, J.D., Co-Executive Director, says this is a “pivotal moment” when the field needs to move from imagination to direct action. This must encompass work which does not have a purely commercial goal. This includes: 

  “Care in conflict zones, public education, and building the social safety net for [the] movement. [Because] if the movement wants to translate promise into practice, it will have to figure out how to bring everyone along, or risk becoming a shadow of the commitment to human potential that birthed it”.

Current priorities for MAPS include a Phase 2 study of cannabis for veterans with PTSD, couples therapy research, and publishing a publicly available “Investigator’s Brochure for ibogaine”, summarising known clinical and non-clinical data related to the compound.

MAPS continues to advocate for legal reform, including protections for Indigenous communities which have been affected by the burgeoning industry and continued prohibition, and an end to criminal penalties for personal possession and use.

I’ll leave you with a final statement from Rick Doblin, which urges both optimism and caution: 

“After four decades, I remain genuinely optimistic that psychedelic-assisted therapies will once again become legal. But legality was never the point. Healing was. We are at risk of winning the struggle for legal access but falling short of the greater victory of equitable access and healing for all who need it.”