OPEN is an interdisciplinary, community-wide, non-commercial research and evaluation effort. We aim to measure the impact of state legal psychedelic services.

OPEN is housed at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU): Our members are clinicians, teachers, and researchers who are dedicated members of the community.

We have three main aims:

1) Grow a network of participating Training Centers, Service Centers, and Facilitators. By sharing information, our members help one another learn and grow.

2) Share findings to improve service safety, quality, and equitable access. We publish results in scientific journals and also share feedback with Training and Service Centers.

3) Create useful tools and software. These user-friendly tools will help gather information about the effects of psychedelic service provision.

The purpose of OPEN research is to advance public health and collective wisdom: We have no financial conflicts of interest. We adhere to the highest standards of research ethics and data security. OPEN’s diverse Community Advisory Council informs the work and ensures accountability.

Please contact us to learn more or join the OPEN network.

Current Projects

OPEN has a diverse set of research projects, all of which are focused on assessing safe, meaningful, and equitable psychedelic services. Currently, our work is funded by federal agencies and OHSU. We can also accept unrestricted gifts through the OHSU Foundation.

Harm Reduction Study:

This study interviews psychedelic harm reduction experts, adults considering psilocybin use, and mental and physical healthcare providers to understand best practices for reducing the risks of psychedelic use and identifies key messages for educational strategies to prevent harms.

Long-term Study of Client Experiences:

ACTIVELY RECRUITING Facilitators and Clients: The purpose of this study is to measure the safety and health impacts of legal psychedelic services. Rigorous assessment and transparent reporting will advance our understanding of how well state level initiatives are working, and how to improve them. This project thoughtfully balances large-scale public health information with individual client privacy and confidentiality.

Adverse Events Reporting:

OPEN’s Adverse Event Portal is a public system where anyone can anonymously report adverse events related to psilocybin use in Oregon.

Report an Adverse Event

Measure 109 Workforce Survey:

This project seeks to understand the emerging psilocybin services workforce. This survey assesses the facilitator training landscape and surveys graduates about their training experiences and practice intentions. This baseline knowledge will help inform facilitator training program curriculum development and identify workforce gaps.

Veterans Administration Peer Curriculum Development

This research builds on our previous Harm Reduction work. Results suggested a need for peer support of Veterans undergoing facilitated psychedelic experiences. Peers are people with life experiences similar to the individuals they serve who can rapidly build trust with people with a variety of mental, physical, and substance use related disorders, facilitating treatment engagement. Current literature on the training of peer support specialists remains limited, reflecting a significant gap in empirical research on effective methodologies and frameworks for their professional development. This study seeks to fill that gap.

Delphi Project to Develop Expert Consensus on Psilocybin Services Outcomes:

Because psychedelic services are so novel, we don’t yet know how to define “safe” or “high-quality” services. The goal of the Delphi project wass to establish the first standardized package of measures which define the safety and quality of supported psychedelic services. This tool can be integrated across the service center ecosystem to enable harmonized data collection. It will allow comprehensive monitoring of safety, effectiveness, and equitable implementation of psychedelic services. Two published studies are available from this study:

Developing the OPEN Core Consensus Measures for Assessment of Supervised Psilocybin Services: An e-Delphi Study. Korthuis et al. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 2024

Personal Psychedelic Experience as a Training Qualification for Facilitators: A Thematic Analysis of Qualitative Interviews with Psilocybin Experts. Wilson-Poe et al. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 2024