DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is working on drugs inspired by psychedelics (but explicitly not psychedelic themselves) for the treatment of PTSD, trauma, and other mental health disorders (for veterans). This is done under the ‘Focused Pharma’ program.
DARPA Focused Pharma
From the Vice article (linked below): “In September [2019], DARPA announced the launch of the Focused Pharma program which will develop new “neuropsychiatric” drugs loosely inspired by the results from various clinical trials of psychedelics. The goal of DARPA’s program is to develop treatment for service members and veterans with PTSD, depression, and substance abuse.
The project is explicitly not investigating psychedelics themselves, a spokesman for DARPA said, but the existence of psychedelic research had an influence on the group’s work—it showed it’s possible for a drug to have such immediate effects on depression, as well as interact with the brain in complex ways, said Tristan McClure-Begley, the program director of Focused Pharma.“
Researchers, if showing initial success, will get four years to develop these new drugs.
Key Staff
- Tristan McClure-Begley – Program Manager
News
- Can a Trip-Free Psychedelic Still Help People With Depression? (Vice, November 2019)
- Structure-Guided Drug Design Could Yield Fast-Acting Remedies for Complex Neuropsychiatric Conditions (DARPA, November 2019)
- DARPA attempting to remove hallucinatory “side effects” from psychedelic medicines (New Atlas, September 2019)
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