Overview

CEP is a network of health economists dedicated to achieving the potential of psychedelic therapies for high-priority mental health conditions. Through the application of policy-relevant economic analyses, CEP seeks to enhance clinical outcomes, increase efficiency of service delivery, and increase access to these promising therapies for everyone who can benefit. Here is a partial list of current projects:

• In collaboration with the Psychedelic Mental Health Access Alliance (PHMAA) evaluating the economics of  care delivery models for marginalized individuals, including Medicaid-fundable models; and developing a uniform set of service delivery variables for psychedelic services providers.

• In collaboration with the Usona Institute, modeling the cost-effectiveness of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy to treat major depressive disorders.

• In collaboration with Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, evaluating the cost-effectiveness of psilocybin-assisted therapy for smoking cessation. Under review at JAMA Open.

• ORCHID: Oregon-Colorado Regulated Psychedelic Care: Healthcare Impacts & Decisions-ORCHID will generate real-world evidence linking state-regulated psilocybin services to changes in healthcare costs, utilization patterns and outcomes—evidence that insurers, employers, and policymakers need before coverage decisions become possible. In partnership with the Sheri Eckert Foundation and UCSF's Carhart-Harris Lab, the study combines a retrospective arm for rapid findings with a prospective longitudinal arm for deeper outcome and safety data, all running on shared infrastructure that can be made available to other research initiatives as well. The analytic plan is complete and we have received UC Berkeley's IRB approval. We are seeking philanthropic investment to carry ORCHID to full implementation

• Consensus Well-Being Measure for Clinical Trials - In collaboration with co-investigators at UC Berkeley, UCSF, Imperial College London, and the  University of Wisconsin CEP is developing a policy case and methodological roadmap for elevating validated well-being measures to primary or co-primary endpoint status in psychiatric and substance-use-disorder trials intended to support FDA approval. We use psychedelic trials as an illustrative use case.  A manuscript is under review at Lancet Psychiatry.

This two-page summary provides additional information on CEP's mission and activities. 

Donations

If you wish to donate to CEP, please use the form below and designate your gift to "other," specifying CEP Fund (Fund# 48166).

https://storage.googleapis.com/giveadmin/filer_public/2c/70/2c704594-1e7b-4f2a-acdb-825e0f3618b9/give_to_berkeley_mail-in_donation_form_2024.pdf

Publications

Below are links to publications from the CEP team on the economics of psychedelic therapies:

• Marseille, E Crunching the numbers on psychedelic therapies: cost coverage and access. MAPS Bulletin 2025: Volume 35, October 2025. https://maps.org/news/bulletin/cost-access-psychedelic-therapy/
• Marseille, E., Raison, C. The microdosing mirage: What science says about the Bay Area’s latest wellness trend. SF Chronicle Op-Ed., August 31, 2025.
• Marseille, E., Bertozzi, S. Where the Trump administration and Bay Area progressives agree: Psychedelics. SF Chronicle Op-Ed., July 21, 2025.
• Marseille E, Mitchell JM. Inappropriate Comparator and High Pricing in MDMA-Assisted Therapy for PTSD: A Critique of the Lykos Cost-Effectiveness Analysis. Psychedelics, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyche.2025.100002
• Marseille E, Chernoloz, O, Orlov, O. The Potential Economic and Public Health Impact of MDMA-Assisted Group Therapy for PTSD in Ukraine, World Medical & Health Policy, 2025, (In Press).
• Avancena A, Linh Vuong BS, Kahn JG, Marseille E. The cost-effectiveness of psilocybin-assisted therapy for treatment-resistant depression in the US. Translational Psychiatry, 2025 (In Press).
• Lam K, Griffin C, Kantipudi S, Mwai D, Kahn JG and Marseille E. Assessing readiness for implementation of psychedelic-assisted mental health therapy, in Low- and Middle-Income Countries, Journal of Psychedelic Studies, 2025 (In Press).
• Truax, B., Marseille, E., Muir, O., & Glastra, J. (2025, March.). Scaling Psychedelic Therapies in the Health System. Norman, S., McQuillan, B., & Horner, S. (Eds). BrainFutures; UC Berkeley Collaborative for the Economics of Psychedelics. https://www.brainfutures.org/scaling-psychedelic-therapies-in-the-health-system/
• Abramsky-Sze, S., Marseille, E., Matzopoulos, R., Morlock, R., & Lerer, L. (2025). Characteristics and mental health of psychedelic mushroom and multi-psychedelic users relative to non-psychedelic users in American adults, 2020-2021. Frontiers in psychiatry, 16, 1508811. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1508811
• Rab, S. F., et al. (2024) An estimate of the number of people with clinical depression eligible for psilocybin-assisted therapy in the United States. Psychedelics. https://doi.org/10.61373/pp024r.0025
• Marseille E, Stauffer CS, Agrawal M, et al. Group psychedelic therapy: empirical estimates of cost-savings and improved access. Front Psychiatry. 2023;14:1293243. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1293243
• Marseille E, Bertozzi S, Kahn JG. The economics of psychedelic-assisted therapies: A research agenda. Front Psychiatry. 2022;13:1025726. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.1025726
•  Avancena ALV, Kahn JG, Marseille E. The Costs and Health Benefits of Expanded Access to MDMA-assisted Therapy for Chronic and Severe PTSD in the USA: A Modeling Study. Clinical Drug Investigation. Mar 1 2022; doi: 10.1007/s40261-022-01122-0
• Marseille E, Kahn JG, Yazar-Klosinski B, Doblin R. The cost-effectiveness of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of chronic, treatment-resistant PTSD. PLoS One. 2020;15(10):e0239997. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0239997
• Marseille E, Mitchell JM, Kahn JG. Updated cost-effectiveness of MDMA-assisted therapy for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder in the United States: Findings from a phase 3 trial. PLoS One. 2022;17(2):e0263252. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0263252
• The cost-effectiveness of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of chronic, treatment-resistant PTSD (plos.org)
• The economics of psychedelic-assisted therapies: A research agenda (Frontiersin.org)

CEP Conferences and Press

Here is a link to CEP's latest news, including upcoming/past conferences, presentations, interviews, and print.

Advisory Council

• Rick Doblin, Executive Director, Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)

• Matthew Johnson, Associate Center Director, Johns Hopkins University, Center for Psychedelics & Consciousness Research

• Tura Patterson, Senior Director, Strategic partnerships, Usona Institute

• Eduardo Schenberg, Founder, Instituto Phaneros (São Paolo, Brazil)