Hallucinogens to treat co-morbid stress and alcohol use disorders

MDMA (ecstasy) and psilocybin (mushrooms) are posed to change the landscape of mental health treatment. However, how they exert their actions in the brain are not well understood.

We have developed a novel rodent model to explore the role of hallucinogens in comorbid PTSD and alcohol use disorder and identify the mechanism(s) by which the anti-anxiety and alcohol consumption behaviours occur.