Official websites use .gov

A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS

A lock ( 🔒 ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Need Help

Therapeutic efficacy and mechanisms of psilocybin for traumatic stress-induced anxiety and pain hypersensitivity

Award Number: F30DA062499
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: FELLOWSHIP/SCHOLARSHIP/STUDENT LOANS
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 03/01/2026
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 02/28/2031

Group Awards By:

View Award Description

Therapeutic efficacy and mechanisms of psilocybin for traumatic stress-induced anxiety and pain hypersensitivity - ABSTRACT Individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experience chronic pain at significantly greater rates than the general population and greater pain intensity than those with chronic pain alone. Those with PTSD featuring comorbid pain suffer from higher rates of anxiety, depression, and opioid use disorder than those with just one of the conditions. Furthermore, trauma has been shown to enhance and prolong pain following injury. Clinical imaging studies and preclinical investigation reveal an overlap in the pathologic central nervous system changes that occur in PTSD and the transition from acute to chronic pain. Central to these changes is the nucleus accumbens (NAc), with both PTSD and chronic pain evidencing altered glutamatergic and midbrain monoaminergic afferent inputs to the NAc. Such findings suggest that the increased rate and severity of chronic pain among individuals with PTSD are due to trauma-induced neuroplastic changes in the NAc facilitating increased pain sensitivity. Accordingly, therapies that enhance neuroplasticity in the NAc may provide therapeutic benefits in chronic pain comorbid with PTSD by attenuating trauma-induced changes. We intend to test the therapeutic efficacy of the neuroplasticity-enhancing agent, psilocybin, in an animal model of trauma- induced anxiety and hyperalgesia using a well-established animal model of PTSD. We hypothesize that the psilocybin intervention will attenuate pain and anxiety symptoms by mitigating trauma-induced changes in the NAc via the same mechanism of enhancing oxytocin-mediated neuroplasticity in the NAc by which psilocybin improves social reward learning. We will gather translationally relevant preclinical evidence on this hypothesis with a rat model of traumatic injury, which couples a thermal burn injury model with the procedure known as single prolonged stress (SPS), wherein rats are exposed to three stressors in a single session: immobilization, group forced swim, and ether exposure. SPS is the favored preclinical PTSD model due to its capacity to reliably induce a phenotype that satisfies all DSM-5 and model validity criteria. Critically, SPS on its own also induces pain sensitivity in rats. The therapeutic efficacy of psilocybin intervention will be evaluated using well-defined behavioral assays of anxiety and pain sensitivity, and psilocybin-induced NAc molecular changes will be assessed by qPCR. Using a chemogenetic approach, we will test whether oxytocinergic projections from the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) to the NAc are required for psilocybin’s therapeutic efficacy in this model and how such inputs modulate psilocybin-induced changes in the expression of neuroplasticity and neuromodulator- related genes in the NAc. This project will provide translational evidence of the therapeutic mechanism of psilocybin for PTSD and comorbid pain. Such data will enhance our understanding of the treatment of PTSD and its comorbidities and may aid in the design of novel therapeutic compounds and approaches for this debilitating pathology currently suffering from inadequate treatment options.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2026 ( Subtotal = $37,108 )
2026	2026	PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY	500 UNIVERSITY DRIVE	HERSHEY	PA	17033	DAUPHIN	USA	Drug Use and Addiction Research Programs	001	1	2/17/2026	NEW	$0
2026	2026	PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY	500 UNIVERSITY DRIVE	HERSHEY	PA	17033	DAUPHIN	USA	Drug Use and Addiction Research Programs	000	1	2/17/2026	NEW	$36,532
2026	2026	PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY	500 UNIVERSITY DRIVE	HERSHEY	PA	17033	DAUPHIN	USA	Drug Use and Addiction Research Programs	002	1	3/25/2026	NEW	$576
														Subtotal = $37,108

Grand Total All Awards = $37,108

Top

All Categories

About

Search

Reports

Data Submission

Award Information

Therapeutic efficacy and mechanisms of psilocybin for traumatic stress-induced anxiety and pain hypersensitivity

Award Number: F30DA062499

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: FELLOWSHIP/SCHOLARSHIP/STUDENT LOANS

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 03/01/2026

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 02/28/2031

Federal Websites

Department of Health & Human Services

HHS Operating Divisions

HHS Staff Divisions

Download A Document Viewer