Mount Sinai opens an MDMA trial for bulimia as NYU adds a psilocybin study for lingering anhedonia
Two new Manhattan studies opened in 2026: Mount Sinai is testing MDMA-assisted therapy for bulimia nervosa, and NYU Langone is testing one psilocybin session for people on antidepressants who still feel little interest or pleasure. Both list themselves as recruiting, so New Yorkers who qualify can apply.
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New York, May 22, 2026. Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai started a phase 1 trial of MDMA-assisted therapy for bulimia nervosa on May 22, 2026, according to its registry record.1 Five days later, on May 27, NYU Langone Health posted a placebo-controlled psilocybin study for people with depression who still have anhedonia, a loss of interest and pleasure, while taking an SSRI or SNRI antidepressant.2 Both records list the studies as recruiting.
Mount Sinai: MDMA-assisted therapy for bulimia
The trial (NCT07542145) is led by Tom Hildebrandt, PsyD, chief of Mount Sinai's Division of Eating and Weight Disorders, and runs at the psychiatry department's Eating and Weight Disorders Program in Manhattan. It plans to randomize 40 adults to one of three groups, with no blinding:1
- MDMA-assisted therapy: three medicine sessions three weeks apart and nine integration sessions over 10 weeks, then 12 sessions of general eating disorder psychotherapy.
- MDMA-assisted therapy with bulimia-specific therapy: the same sessions, with psychotherapy aimed at bulimia.
- Standard treatment: 22 weekly therapy sessions.
The primary outcome is how often participants binge eat, measured by questionnaire for up to six months. To qualify, people must be 18 or older with bulimia nervosa that persisted despite at least one prior episode of specialized eating disorder treatment (inpatient, residential, partial hospitalization or intensive outpatient), live within about a two-hour drive of the site, and have a primary care doctor.1 Mount Sinai's psychedelic research center listed MDMA-assisted therapy for eating disorders among its planned studies in 2024.3
NYU Langone: psilocybin for residual anhedonia
NYU's study (NCT07607938), "Targeting Reward Circuits: Psilocybin as a Novel Therapy for Residual Anhedonia," is led by Joshua Siegel, MD, PhD, with the National Institute of Mental Health as collaborator. It is a phase 1, randomized, triple-masked study of 90 adults aged 18 to 65 who have major depressive disorder, are taking an SSRI or SNRI antidepressant and still have anhedonia and emotional blunting.2
Per the registry, the psilocybin arm gets a single 25 mg capsule under supervision and the control arm an inert placebo capsule. Everyone has six MRI scans, two before the session and four after. The two primary outcomes are change on the Dimensional Anhedonia Rating Scale and change in connectivity between two reward-circuit regions, the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex and the nucleus accumbens, from three weeks before the session to week 8.2 NIH's grant database lists the award, R01MH142698, at $871,225 for fiscal 2026, with a project period running to November 30, 2030.4
Also new at Mount Sinai
Mount Sinai's Parsons Research Center for Psychedelic Healing, on West 112th Street,3 is the site of two more studies starting in 2026. An open-label MDMA study for mental health providers training to become MDMA-assisted therapists (NCT07102576) started February 11, 2026 and plans 30 participants.5 An open-label psilocybin-assisted therapy study for adult children of genocide survivors with mood and anxiety disorders (NCT06899165) plans 100 participants and gives August 28, 2026 as an estimated start.6
MDMA and psilocybin are both Schedule I drugs under federal law, so outside approved research they can't be prescribed.7 Our New York trials list counts 12 psilocybin and psilocin-analog studies recruiting at New York sites. For what's legal here today, see psilocybin therapy in NYC.
Sources
- MDMA Assisted Therapy for Bulimia Nervosa: A Treatment Development Protocol, NCT07542145. ClinicalTrials.gov, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; record last updated June 22, 2026, read November 2, 2026.
- Psilocybin as a Novel Therapy for Residual Anhedonia, NCT07607938. ClinicalTrials.gov, NYU Langone Health; record last updated September 15, 2026, read November 2, 2026.
- Mount Sinai expands psychedelic research center with new facility in Upper Manhattan. Mount Sinai Health System, September 19, 2024.
- Targeting Reward Circuits: Psilocybin as a Novel Therapy for Residual Anhedonia, 1R01MH142698-01. NIH RePORTER, retrieved November 2, 2026.
- MDMA-Assisted Therapy for Mental Healthcare Providers, NCT07102576. ClinicalTrials.gov; read November 2, 2026.
- Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy for Intergenerational Trauma, NCT06899165. ClinicalTrials.gov; read November 2, 2026.
- 21 CFR 1308.11, Schedule I, paragraphs (d)(11) MDMA, (d)(29) psilocybin and (d)(30) psilocyn. Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, version of October 21, 2026.
Keep reading
Which psilocybin clinical trials are recruiting in New York?Every psilocybin study with a New York site: who's recruiting at NYU Langone, Mount Sinai and the Bronx VA, and how screening works.
Can you get legal psilocybin therapy in NYC?Trials, Spravato and ketamine clinics, Oregon and Colorado: what's legal for New Yorkers now, and what isn't.
Where can you get help or drug checking for psilocybin in NYC?Who to call first, the Good Samaritan law, what NYC drug checking can and can't test, and who psilocybin trials exclude.
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