Alan Davis
Associate Professor of Social Work & Director, Center for Psychedelic Drug Research
Papers
Trials
Key Impact
Noted for advancing epidemiological, naturalistic and mixed-method research on therapeutic and adverse outcomes of psychedelics and for translating those findings into clinical and harm-reduction contexts.
Background & Research
Alan K. Davis, PhD, is an Associate Professor in social work and the director of a university-based centre for psychedelic drug research and education. He has a substantive track record in both clinical and naturalistic research on classic and atypical psychedelics, combining epidemiological, mixed-method and clinical-trial approaches. Davis has collaborated with leading investigators in the field (including co-authorship on influential reviews and trial reports) and has published on topics ranging from psilocybin-assisted therapy for major depressive disorder to psychological mechanisms such as psychological flexibility and predictors of psychedelic treatment response.
His published and in-database work spans naturalistic observational studies (for example, investigations of 5-MeO-DMT use in group settings and reports of unintended improvements in depression and anxiety), mixed-method evaluations of ibogaine-assisted detoxification, research on acute and enduring effects of psychedelic use among Indigenous peoples in North America, surveys of clinician attitudes toward therapeutic psychedelic use, and analyses of changes in alcohol consumption following psychedelic experiences. Davis is known for emphasising methodological rigour in naturalistic research, pragmatic clinical outcomes, cultural and contextual factors, and safety/harm-reduction perspectives; he remains actively involved in prospective and secondary-analytic studies that aim to clarify who benefits from psychedelic interventions and why.