Areas of Research & Innovation

We conduct collaborative clinical trials that are carried out by our esteemed Sheppard Pratt researchers. In addition, with more than 70,000 people walking through our doors each year, we have access to one of the largest, most diverse populations of psychiatric patients anywhere.

Our primary areas of study include major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, autism, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer’s disease/dementia. The translational research happening at Sheppard Pratt is conducted by a diverse, experienced team of professionals.

The Center of Excellence for Psilocybin Research and Treatment

The Center of Excellence for Psilocybin Research and Treatment will, in the words of the Institute’s Director, Dr. Scott Aaronson, “change the face of psychiatry in the future.” It is the first international Center of Excellence for the development of psychedelic therapeutics and is unique in its effort to integrate biological psychiatry with psychotherapy. Senior Investigator, Dr. Matthew Johnson, who has over 20 years of experience at the forefront of psychedelic research, states “Psychedelics show incredible transdiagnostic potential for treatment psychiatric disorders, but also potential as a technology for behavior change more broadly and as tool sfor understanding mental processes.”

New research in the use of psychedelic therapy demonstrates its potential efficacy for a range of mental illnesses including depression, bipolar type II depression, tobacco use disorder, alcohol use disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Psilocybin, a psychoactive chemical that occurs naturally in certain mushrooms, and other psychedelics can make the brain more malleable and amendable to change. Combined with psychotherapy, research shows it can disrupt problematic patterns of thinking. The Center will also conduct research with other psychedelics, including LSD, which show similar potential as therapeutics. 

Psychedelic services are available only to those enrolled in the associated clinical research trials.

Stanley Research Program

The Stanley Research Program at Sheppard Pratt was initiated in1999 and its mission is to determine the role of infectious agents and other environmental factors in the etiology of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression; to perform adjunctive trials of immune modulatory agents; and, ultimately, to define new methods for the diagnosis and treatment of persons with serious mental illness. To date a total of 2500 persons have been enrolled in research studies with the program, all of whom have been clinically assessed and had a blood sample drawn from which immune markers and antibodies to infectious agents have been measured as well as genetic markers; since 2013, samples have also been collected for studies of the microbiome. The program conducts clinical trials of adjunctive immunomodulatory agents in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with 11 trials completed and published to date and 4 that are ongoing. The publication of the group’s trial of adjunctive probiotics for persons after hospitalization for acute mania won the award for the best paper of the year in 2018 from the International Society for Bipolar Disorders. The group also conducts studies about suicide and mortality in serious mental illness and about persons receiving coordinated specialty care for first episode psychosis.