Acácia Rocha

J. M. Rocha is a clinical researcher whose recent work focuses on experimental and translational studies of ayahuasca and broader psychedelic use in both clinical and healthy volunteer populations. Rocha has been involved in a series of pilot, proof-of-concept, randomised and placebo-controlled trials investigating ayahuasca's effects on social anxiety disorder, self-perception of speech performance, and the recognition of facial emotional expressions, as well as feasibility work examining interactive effects of ayahuasca and cannabidiol on social cognition. These interventional studies emphasise tight experimental control, behavioural and psychometric outcomes, and feasibility in clinical populations.

In addition to interventional trials, Rocha has contributed to transcultural and longitudinal epidemiological research assessing lifetime psychedelic use and its associations with psychometric measures and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic, including post-traumatic growth. Across these projects, Rocha's contributions are characterised by a focus on social cognitive processes, anxiety-related clinical endpoints, and methodological approaches that combine randomised designs with cross-sectional and longitudinal population-level assessments of psychedelic effects.