Purpose

“...Our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus, and at a touch they are there in all their completeness, definite types of mentality which probably somewhere have their field of application and adaptation. No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded. How to regard them is the question..."

- William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature

Based in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine—and part of the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research—the Yaden Lab investigates significant alterations in subjective experience, including their causes, correlates, and consequences.

Led by Dr. David B. Yaden, PhD, and supported by funding from the NIH, philanthropic support, and the Griffiths Professorship, our research focuses on how these mental states affect emotions, beliefs, and relationships to others. We aim to determine whether, and to what extent, these sometimes transformative experiences can be harnessed to reduce suffering and foster well-being. Our methodology relies on controlled laboratory experiments, clinical trials, psychometric methods, and interdisciplinary collaborations. We are always guided by the conviction that precise scholarship and moral responsibility must inform the study of altered states of consciousness. Overall, we aim to explore and explain these extraordinary experiences.

In pursuing these questions, we aim to show how substantial shifts in awareness can sometimes affect well-being. When we discover that certain aspects of these experiences yield lasting benefits, we will recommend how best to integrate them safely and responsibly into medical and therapeutic settings and possibly beyond. When we find that they pose substantial risks, we will describe why, and how, they should be considered. By clarifying the nature and significance of psychedelic experiences and other psychedelic-like experiences, we hope to contribute to a deeper understanding of the mind, the self, and the circumstances under which in which these mental states reduce or enhance well-being.

Publications

Yaden DB, Goldy S, Weiss B, Griffiths RR. Understanding therapeutically relevant acute subjective effects of psychedelics. Nature Rev Psych. 2024.

Hinkle J, Graziosi M, Nayak S, Yaden DB. Adverse events in studies of classic psychedelics: A systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Psych. 2024.

Yaden DB, Graziosi M, Owen AM, Agin-Liebes G, Aaronson ST, Allen KA, Barrett FS, Bogenschutz MP, Carhart-Harris R, Ching THW, Cosimano MP, Danforth A, Davis AK, Garcia-Romeu A, Griffiths RR, Grob CS, Gründer G, Gukasyan N, Heinzerling KG, Hendricks PS, Holze F, Horton DM, Johnson MW, Kelmendi B, Peck SK, Koslowski M, Liechti ME, Mertens LJ, Moreno FA, Nayak SM, Nicholas CR, Preller KH, Rieser NM, Ross S, Sergi K, Sloshower J, Smigielski L, Stenbæk DS, Vollenweider FX, Weiss B, Wolff M, Yaden ME. A Field-Wide Review and Analysis of Study Materials Used in Psilocybin Trials: Assessment of Two Decades of Research. Psychedelic Medicine. in 2024.

Graziosi M, Tiwari P, Rohde J, Siev, Yaden DB. Psychedelics, OCD and Related Disorders: A Systematic Review. Journal of Obsessive Compulsive and Related Disorders. 2024.

Cheung K, Earp BD, Yaden DB. Valuing the acute subjective experience. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. 2024.

Nayak SM, White S, Hilbert S, Lowe MX, Jackson H, Griffiths RR, Garcia-Romeu A, Yaden DB. Psychedelic experiences increase mind perception but do not change atheist-believer status. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs. 2024.

Tiwari P, Ehrenkranz R, Yaden DB. Psychiatric applications of psychedelics: Neurobiological foundations for treatments of depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Adv in Psych and Beh Health. 2024.

Zech JM, Yaden DB, Jones GM. Associations Between Psychedelic Use and Cannabis Use Disorder in a Nationally Representative Sample. Drug and Alcohol Dependence. 2024.

Sandbrink JD, Johnson K, Gill M, Yaden D, Savulescu J, Hannikainen I, Earp BD. Strong bipartisan support for controlled psilocybin use as treatment or enhancement in a representative sample of US Americans: need for caution in public policy persists. AJOB Neuroscience. 2024.

McGuire AL, Cohen G, Sisti D, Baggott M, Celidwen Y, Devenot N, Gracias S, Grob C, Harvey I, Kious B, Marks M, Mithoefer M, Nielson E, Öngür D, Pallas A, Peterson A, Schenberg EE, Summergrad P, Waters B, Williams MT, Yaden DB. Developing an ethics and policy framework for psychedelic clinical care. JAMA Open. 2024.

Chirico A, Borghesi F, Yaden DB, Pizzolante M, Sarcinella ED, Cipresso P, & Gaggioli A. (2024). Unveiling the underlying structure of awe in virtual reality and in autobiographical recall: an exploratory study. Nature Scientific Reports. 2024.

Meling D, Ehrenkranz R, Nayak SM, Aicher HD, Funk X, van Elk M, Graziosi M, Bauer PR, Scheidegger M, Yaden DB. Mind the psychedelic hype: Characterizing the risks and benefits of psychedelics in depression. Psychoactives. 2024.

Buyukbabani MB, Earp BD, Hannikainen I, Barba T, Mihailov E, Yaden DB, Savulescu J. Moral attitudes toward pharmacologically assisted couples therapy: An experimental bioethics study of real-world “love drugs”. AJOB Neuro. 2024.

Nayak S, Bari BA., Yaden DB, Spriggs MJ, Rosas F, Peill JM, Carhart-Harris R. A Bayesian Reanalysis of a Trial of Psilocybin versus Escitalopram for Depression. 2023.

Ehrenkranz E, Agrawal M, Yaden DB. Adverse events should not be surprising in psychedelic research. Psychedelic Medicine. 2024.

Mathai D, Nayak S, Yaden DB, Garcia-Romeu A. Reconsidering “dissociation” as a predictor of antidepressant efficacy for esketamine. Psychopharm. 2023.

Gukasyan, N., Griffiths, R. R., Yaden, D. B., Antoine, D., & Nayak, S. M. Serotonergic antidepressant use is associated with weaker psilocybin effects. 2023.

Jacobs E, Earp BD, Appelbaum P, Bruce L, Cassidy K, Celidwen Y, Cheung K, Clancy S, Devenot N, Evans J, Fernandez-Lynch H, Friesen P, Garcia-Romeu A, Gehani N, Maloof M, Marcus O, Moen OM, Mertens M, Nayak SM, Yaden DB. (2024) The Hopkins-Oxford psychedelic ethics (HOPE) working group consensus statement. American Journal of Bioethics. 2024.

Chrysikou E, Wintering AB, Hriso C, Shahrampour S, Yaden DB, Kaufman SB, Alizedah M, Mohamed F, Newberg, AB. Resting-State Functional Connectivity Reveals Differences in Large-scale Network Interactions Between Eminent and Non-Eminent Thinkers. Cr Res J. 2023.

Curtis B, Giorgi S, Ungar L, Vu H, Yaden DB, Liu T, Yadeta K, and Schwartz HA. AI-based Analysis of Social Media Language Predicts Addiction Treatment Dropout at 90 Days. Neuropsychopharm. 2023.

Cheung K, Propes C, Jacobs E, Earp BD, & Yaden DB. Psychedelic group-based integration: ethical assessment and initial recommendations. International Review of Psychiatry, 1-11. 2024.

Cheung K., Earp BD., Patch K., Yaden DB. Distinctive but not unique: The risks of psychedelic ethical exceptionalism. Amer Journ of Bioethics. 2024.

Ehrenkranz R, Agrawal M, Penberthy JK, & Yaden DB. Narrative review of the potential for psychedelics to treat Prolonged Grief Disorder. International Review of Psychiatry, 1-12. 2024.

Stade, EC, Stirman EW, Ungar LH, Boland CL, Schwartz HA, Yaden DB, Sedoc J, DeRubeis RJ, Willer R, and Eichstaedt JC. Large language models could change the future of behavioral healthcare: a proposal for responsible development and evaluation. NPJ Mental Health Research. 2024.

Goldy SP, Hendricks PS, Keltner D, & Yaden DB. Considering distinct positive emotions in psychedelic science. International Review of Psychiatry. 2024.

Yaden DB, Berghella AP, Hendricks PS, Yaden ME, Levine M, Rohde J, Nayak S, Johnson MW, Garcia-Romeu A. Integration of classic psychedelics into current substance use disorder treatment models. Pharmacolog Res. 2023

Yaden DB, Giorgi S, Jordan M, Buffone A, Eichstaedt JC, Schwartz HA, Ungar L, Bloom P. Characterizing Empathy and Compassion using Computational Linguistic Analysis. Emo. 2023.

van Elk M, Yaden D. De-Siloing the Psychology of Religion and Psychedelic Science: Introduction to the Special Issue on Psychedelics and Mystical-type Experiences. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion. 2023.

Giorgi S, Yaden DB, Eichstaedt JC, Ungar LH, Schwartz HA, Kwarteng A, Curtis B. Predicting US county opioid poisoning mortality from multi-modal social media and psychological self-report data. Sci Rep. 2023.

Graziosi M, Singh M, Nayak SM, Yaden DB. Acute Subjective Effects of Psychedelics within and Beyond WEIRD Contexts. Journal of psychoactive drugs. 2023.

Gukasyan N, Griffiths RR, Yaden DB, Antoine DG, Nayak SM. Attenuation of psilocybin mushroom effects during and after SSRI/SNRI antidepressant use. Journal of Psychopharmacology. 2023.

Urrutia J, Anderson BT, Belouin SJ, Berger A, Griffiths RR, Grob CS, Henningfield JE, Labate BC, Maier LJ, Maternowska MC, Weichold F, Yaden DB, Mager V. Psychedelic Science, Contemplative Practices, and Indigenous and Other Traditional Knowledge Systems: Towards Integrative Community-Based Approaches in Global Health. J of Psych Drugs. 2023.

Tiwari P, Berghella A, Sayali C, Doss M, Barrett F, Yaden DB, Learned Helplessness as a Potential Transdiagnostic Therapeutic Mechanism of Classic Psychedelics. Psych Med. 2023.

Cheung K, Patch K, Earp BD, Yaden DB. Psychedelics, Meaningfulness, and the "Proper Scope" of Medicine: Continuing the Conversation. CQ Health Eth. 2023

Jacobs E, Yaden DB, Earp B. Towards a broader psychedelic bioethics. AJOB Neuro. 2023.

Yaden DB, Van Elk M. Cultural dissonance and consonance in mystical-type experiences. Rel, Brain, and Beh. 2023.

Nautiyal KM, Yaden DB. Does the trip matter? Investigating the role of the subjective effects of psychedelics in persisting therapeutic effects. Neuropsychopharm Rev. 2023.

Yaden DB, Haybron DM. The emotional state assessment tool: A brief, philosophically informed, and cross-culturally sensitive measure. J. of Pos Psych. 2022.

van Elk M, Yaden DB. Pharmacological, neural, and psychological mechanisms underlying psychedelics: A critical review. Neurosci & Biobehav Rev. 2022.

Mathai DS, Yaden DB, O’Donnell KC. The conundrum of therapeutic intoxication. The British journal of psychiatry. 2022.

Yaden DB, Earp BD, Griffiths RR. Ethical issues regarding non-subjective psychedelics as standard of care. Camb Quart in Healthcare Ethics. 2022.

Yaden DB, Earp D, Graziozi M, Friedman-Wheeler, D, Luoma JB, Johnson, MW. Psychedelics and psychotherapy: Cognitive-behavioral approaches as default. Front in Psych. 2022.

Nayak S, Singh M, Yaden DB, Griffiths RR. Belief changes associated with psychedelic use. J of Psychopharm. 2022.

Yaden DB, Potash JB, Griffiths RR. Preparing for the bursting of the psychedelic hype bubble. JAMA Pysch. 2022.