Our research results

Below are the completed and in-progress research projects. Together, these results are helping pave the way for a healthcare breakthrough in the United States.

Healthcare-Utilization Study (ORCHID) — in progress

In partnership with UC Berkeley’ and the Collaborative for the Economics of Psychedelics (CEP), we’ve created our flagship, real-world psychedelic research project tracking healthcare outcomes. The Oregon Research on Care & Health Insurance Delivery (ORCHID) tracks health-care use and costs before and after clients receive legal psilocybin services—ER visits, hospitalizations, medications, and related utilization—to quantify potential cost offsets and inform payer policy.

We will evaluate changes in health-care use and costs for people accessing Oregon’s state-sponsored psilocybin services with the project directed by renowned UC Berkeley health economist Elliott Marseille, DrPH, MPP. ORCHID is a “first-of-its-kind” multi-part study done inside the state-legal model. (Center for Global Health Delivery)

Why it matters: If psilocybin services reduce downstream utilization or improve outcomes at acceptable cost, that is the evidence insurers and public programs look for—precisely the gap SEF is working to fill to reach coverage by decade’s end.

Depression Study — complete

SEF catalyzed Low-Income Group Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy for Depression (LIGPAT) with a $30,000 grant to the National University of Natural Medicine (NUNM) to test a group model of psilocybin-assisted therapy for adults with depression who meet low-income criteria—the first study to run inside Oregon’s Psilocybin Services (OPS) regulatory framework and among the first to focus specifically on low-income participants. The protocol used brief virtual prep, two group psilocybin sessions at a licensed center in Northwest Portland, and group integration; mushrooms were donated by an Oregon-licensed cultivator. (NUNM)

Results were released August 2025. In an open-label pilot (n=19), participants showed statistically significant improvements across depression and multiple quality-of-life domains. Three months later, some gains attenuated (e.g., pain-impact measures), but overall self-rated quality of life remained higher than baseline (mean rating rose from ~5.9 → 7.4/10). The study reported no serious adverse events, allowed participants on SSRIs, and emphasized feasibility and safety of a lower-cost group approach for people with financial barriers. (ClinicalTrials.gov)

Why it matters: LIGPAT offers early evidence that OPS-compliant group care can be safe, acceptable, and impactful for low-income patients—evidence SEF explicitly aims to build toward insurance coverage. (NUNM)

Alcoholism Study — complete

SEF has partnered financially and operationally on a Community Impact Pilot focused on Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) delivered at InnerTrek (an Oregon-licensed provider), with People Science leading study design/ops and the Healing Advocacy Fund (HAF) convening the research network. The AUD pilot evaluates real-world psilocybin services for people who struggle with alcohol, explicitly to inform policy and payer decisions in state-regulated models. (ctv.veeva.com)

The registered protocol (observational pilot) targets ~20 participants, with heavy drinking days as the primary endpoint and 12-week follow-up; InnerTrek provides the state-licensed services while the research team tracks outcomes and safety in routine practice.

Why it matters: This pilot extends evidence generation to substance-use conditions in a real services context—not a tightly controlled FDA trial—matching SEF’s strategy to build the case for access and coverage within OPS. SEF’s public materials list HAF, People Science, and InnerTrek among its research partners and note that the Foundation funded and helped organize Oregon’s first collection of such real-world projects.

Oregon Psilocybin Evaluation Nexus (OPEN) — in progress

SEF also supports work at Oregon Psilocybin Evaluation Nexus (OPEN), a community-wide, non-commercial research initiative housed at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) that is building the measurement backbone for OPS. OPEN’s program includes a long-term outcomes cohort (facilitators and clients enrolled with one-year follow-up), a public Adverse Event Portal to anonymously report harms, and targeted studies (harm-reduction best practices; training/peer-support for specific populations). (Open Psychedelic Evaluation Nexus)

In 2024, an OPEN-led Delphi consensus effort published one of the first best-practice frameworks for supervised psilocybin services (state-legal or research settings), codifying a shared language for safety and outcome measurement (e.g., screening, preparation, dosing context, integration). OHSU highlighted the work as establishing best practices; the peer-reviewed paper details the OPEN Consensus Measures. (OHSU News)

Why it matters. OPEN’s instrumentation and safety surveillance make Oregon’s program measurable—a prerequisite for credible health-system adoption. SEF considers OPEN/OHSU among its core research partners as part of its incubator strategy.

More to come in 2026

SEF’s research incubator is expanding. With additional research in development, we’ll keep sharing updates and results as we’re able via our website, communications channels, peer-reviewed outputs, and in public summaries and policy briefs.