Joshua Woolley, MD, PhD
Associate Professor
Psychiatry
School of Medicine

He is the Director of the Translational Psychedelic Research (TrPR) Program at UCSF, which brings together scientists and care providers across disciplines to understand the efficacy, safety, and therapeutic mechanisms of psychedelic compounds including psilocybin, MDMA, and ketamine, for multiple neuropsychiatric disorders.

In addition to his work as a researcher, Dr. Woolley is also a dedicated mentor, clinician, and educator who enjoys training the next generation of clinicians and scientists. Over the course of his career, Dr. Woolley has mentored over 30 postdoctoral fellows and 8 junior faculty members. He is the Associate Director of the Psychosis Clinic at the SFVA where he supervises and trains medical students, psychiatry residents, and clinical and research fellows. He has also served as the Co-Director of the first-year medical school psychiatry course Brain Mind and Behavior, and has been given several awards for his dedication to teaching.

Dr. Woolley has received numerous intramural and extramural awards including the NARSAD Young Investigator Award from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, the Young Investigator Award, as well as travel awards from the California Society for Addiction Medicine, the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology, and the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry. He is an Associate Member of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. His work is supported by the Department of Veteran Affairs as well as the Department of Defense, philanthropy, and industry. He has published his work widely in high-impact journals including JAMA, Nature Neuroscience, Schizophrenia Bulletin, Biological Psychiatry, and American Journal of Psychiatry, among others.

• Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy: where is the psychotherapy research?
  Psychopharmacology 2024 Aday JS, Horton D, Fernandes-Osterhold G, O'Donovan A, Bradley ER, Rosen RC, Woolley JD
• Content analysis of Reddit posts about coadministration of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and psilocybin mushrooms.
  Psychopharmacology 2024 Sakai K, Bradley ER, Zamaria JA, Agin-Liebes G, Kelley DP, Fish A, Martini V, Ferris MC, Morton E, Michalak EE, O'Donovan A, Woolley JD
• Psilocybin therapy and anorexia nervosa: a narrative review of safety considerations for researchers and clinicians.
  Journal of eating disorders 2024 Downey AE, Chaphekar AV, Woolley J, Raymond-Flesch M
• Quantifying abnormal emotion processing: A novel computational assessment method and application in schizophrenia.
  Psychiatry research 2024 Bradley ER, Portanova J, Woolley JD, Buck B, Painter IS, Hankin M, Xu W, Cohen T
• Effects of Ayahuasca on Gratitude and Relationships with Nature: A Prospective, Naturalistic Study.
  Journal of psychoactive drugs 2024 Aday JS, Bloesch EK, Davis AK, Domoff SE, Scherr K, Woolley JD, Davoli CC
• Single-Dose Psilocybin Treatment for Major Depressive Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial.
  JAMA 2023 Raison CL, Sanacora G, Woolley J, Heinzerling K, Dunlop BW, Brown RT, Kakar R, Hassman M, Trivedi RP, Robison R, Gukasyan N, Nayak SM, Hu X, O'Donnell KC, Kelmendi B, Sloshower J, Penn AD, Bradley E, …
• "But the reality is it's happening": A qualitative study of eating disorder providers about psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy.
  The International journal of eating disorders 2023 Downey AE, Boyd M, Chaphekar AV, Woolley J, Raymond-Flesch M
• Reply to: Marketing pitches of 'magic mushrooms' and 'psychedelics' mask that psychotomimetics use exposes those vulnerable to serious adverse effects.
  Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) 2023 Morton E, Sakai K, Ashtari A, Pleet M, Michalak EE, Woolley J
• MDMA-Assisted Therapy for Severe PTSD: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Phase 3 Study.
  Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing) 2023 Mitchell JM, Bogenschutz M, Lilienstein A, Harrison C, Kleiman S, Parker-Guilbert K, Ot'alora G M, Garas W, Paleos C, Gorman I, Nicholas C, Mithoefer M, Carlin S, Poulter B, Mithoefer A, Quevedo S, …
• Emerging Challenges for Psychedelic Therapy.
  JAMA psychiatry 2023 Aday JS, Carhart-Harris RL, Woolley JD
• Reply to: Marketing pitches of 'magic mushrooms' and 'psychedelics' mask that psychotomimetics use exposes those vulnerable to serious adverse effects.
  Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) 2023 Morton E, Sakai K, Ashtari A, Pleet M, Michalak EE, Woolley J
• "A sense of the bigger picture:" A qualitative analysis of follow-up interviews with people with bipolar disorder who self-reported psilocybin use.
  PloS one 2022 DellaCrosse M, Pleet M, Morton E, Ashtari A, Sakai K, Woolley J, Michalak E
• Risks and benefits of psilocybin use in people with bipolar disorder: An international web-based survey on experiences of 'magic mushroom' consumption.
  Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) 2022 Morton E, Sakai K, Ashtari A, Pleet M, Michalak EE, Woolley J
• The effects of intranasal oxytocin on black participants' responses to outgroup acceptance and rejection.
  Frontiers in psychology 2022 Park J, Woolley J, Mendes WB
• Prior trauma exposure, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.
  Journal of psychiatric research 2022 Nishimi K, Borsari B, Tripp P, Jiha A, Dolsen EA, Woolley JD, Neylan TC, O'Donovan A
• Great Expectations: recommendations for improving the methodological rigor of psychedelic clinical trials.
  Psychopharmacology 2022 Aday JS, Heifets BD, Pratscher SD, Bradley E, Rosen R, Woolley JD
• Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms associated with protective and risky behaviors for coronavirus disease 2019.
  Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association 2022 Nishimi K, Borsari B, Marx BP, Tripp P, Woodward E, Rosen RC, Cohen BE, Maven D, Jiha A, Woolley JD, Neylan TC, O'Donovan A
• Psilocybin for Trauma-Related Disorders.
  Current topics in behavioral neurosciences 2022 Khan AJ, Bradley E, O'Donovan A, Woolley J
• Clusters of COVID-19 protective and risky behaviors and their associations with pandemic, socio-demographic, and mental health factors in the United States.
  Preventive medicine reports 2021 Nishimi K, Borsari B, Marx BP, Rosen RC, Cohen BE, Woodward E, Maven D, Tripp P, Jiha A, Woolley JD, Neylan TC, O'Donovan A
• Effects of oxytocin administration on fear-potentiated acoustic startle in co-occurring PTSD and alcohol use disorder: A randomized clinical trial.
  Psychiatry research 2021 Stauffer CS, Morrison TE, Meinzer NK, Leung D, Buffington J, Sheh EG, Neylan TC, O'Donovan A, Woolley JD
• Oxytocin increases physiological linkage during group therapy for methamphetamine use disorder: a randomized clinical trial.
  Scientific reports 2021 Thorson KR, McKernan SM, West TV, Woolley JD, Mendes WB, Stauffer CS
• Analysis of Behavior Classification in Motivational Interviewing.
  Proceedings of the conference. Association for Computational Linguistics. North American Chapter. Meeting 2021 Tavabi L, Tran T, Stefanov K, Borsari B, Woolley JD, Scherer S, Soleymani M
• MDMA-assisted therapy for severe PTSD: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 3 study.
  Nature medicine 2021 Mitchell JM, Bogenschutz M, Lilienstein A, Harrison C, Kleiman S, Parker-Guilbert K, Ot'alora G M, Garas W, Paleos C, Gorman I, Nicholas C, Mithoefer M, Carlin S, Poulter B, Mithoefer A, Quevedo S, …
• Preliminary evidence that oxytocin does not improve mentalizing in women with schizophrenia.
  Hormones and behavior 2020 Bradley ER, Tai M, Hankin M, Woolley JD
• Psilocybin-Assisted Group Therapy and Attachment: Observed Reduction in Attachment Anxiety and Influences of Attachment Insecurity on the Psilocybin Experience.
  ACS pharmacology & translational science 2020 Stauffer CS, Anderson BT, Ortigo KM, Woolley J
• Multimodal Automatic Coding of Client Behavior in Motivational Interviewing.
  Proceedings of the ... ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interaction. ICMI (Conference) 2020 Tavabi L, Borsari B, Stefanov K, Woolley JD, Soleymani M, Zhang L, Scherer S
• Psilocybin-assisted group therapy for demoralized older long-term AIDS survivor men: An open-label safety and feasibility pilot study.
  EClinicalMedicine 2020 Anderson BT, Danforth A, Daroff PR, Stauffer C, Ekman E, Agin-Liebes G, Trope A, Boden MT, Dilley PJ, Mitchell J, Woolley J
• Oxytocin does not improve emotional prosody recognition in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.
  Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology 2020 Chuang BJ, Campellone TR, Woolley JD
• Automatic Imitation in Comorbid PTSD & Alcohol Use Disorder and Controls: an RCT of Intranasal Oxytocin.
  Psychoneuroendocrinology 2020 Morrison TE, De Coster L, Stauffer CS, Wen J, Ahmadi E, Delucchi K, O'Donovan A, Woolley J
• Enhancing prolonged exposure therapy for PTSD among veterans with oxytocin: Design of a multisite randomized controlled trial.
  Contemporary clinical trials 2020 Flanagan JC, Mitchell JM, Baker NL, Woolley J, Wangelin B, Back SE, McQuaid JR, Neylan TC, Wolfe WR, Brady KT
• Oxytocin-enhanced group therapy for methamphetamine use disorder: Randomized controlled trial.
  Journal of substance abuse treatment 2020 Stauffer CS, Moschetto JM, McKernan S, Meinzer N, Chiang C, Rapier R, Hsiang E, Norona J, Borsari B, Woolley JD
• Social integration and inflammation in individuals with and without posttraumatic stress disorder.
  Brain, behavior, and immunity 2020 Ahmadian AJ, Lin JE, Neylan TC, Woolley JD, O'Donovan A, Cohen BE
• Randomized Controlled Trial Testing Mobile-Based Attention-Bias Modification for Posttraumatic Stress Using Personalized Word Stimuli.
  Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science 2020 Niles AN, Woolley JD, Tripp P, Pesquita A, Vinogradov S, Neylan TC, O'Donovan A
• Oxytocin Enhances an Amygdala Circuit Associated With Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenia: A Single-Dose, Placebo-Controlled, Crossover, Randomized Control Trial.
  Schizophrenia bulletin 2020 Abram SV, De Coster L, Roach BJ, Mueller BA, van Erp TGM, Calhoun VD, Preda A, Lim KO, Turner JA, Ford JM, Mathalon DH, Woolley JD
• Six month durability of targeted cognitive training supplemented with social cognition exercises in schizophrenia.
  Schizophrenia research. Cognition 2019 Miley K, Fisher M, Nahum M, Howard E, Rowlands A, Brandrett B, Woolley J, Hooker CI, Biagianti B, Ramsay I, Vinogradov S
• Effects of Oxytocin Administration on Cue-Induced Craving in Co-occurring Alcohol Use Disorder and PTSD: A Within-Participant Randomized Clinical Trial.
  Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research 2019 Stauffer CS, Meinzer NK, Morrison T, Wen JH, Radanovich L, Leung D, Niles A, O'Donovan A, Batki SL, Woolley JD
• Oxytocin increases eye gaze in schizophrenia.
  Schizophrenia research 2019 Bradley ER, Seitz A, Niles AN, Rankin KP, Mathalon DH, O'Donovan A, Woolley JD
• Neural and behavioral effects of oxytocin administration during theory of mind in schizophrenia and controls: a randomized control trial.
  Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology 2019 De Coster L, Lin L, Mathalon DH, Woolley JD
• Psychedelic-Assisted Group Therapy: A Systematic Review.
  Journal of psychoactive drugs 2019 Trope A, Anderson BT, Hooker AR, Glick G, Stauffer C, Woolley JD
• Victory is its own reward: oxytocin increases costly competitive behavior in schizophrenia.
  Psychological medicine 2019 Bradley ER, Brustkern J, De Coster L, van den Bos W, McClure SM, Seitz A, Woolley JD
• Concurrent Use of Buprenorphine, Methadone, or Naltrexone Does Not Inhibit Ketamine's Antidepressant Activity.
  Biological psychiatry 2019 Marton T, Barnes DE, Wallace A, Woolley JD
• Oxytocin-enhanced motivational interviewing group therapy for methamphetamine use disorder in men who have sex with men: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.
  Trials 2019 Stauffer CS, Moschetto JM, McKernan SM, Hsiang E, Borsari B, Woolley JD
• Oxytocin does not improve working memory in schizophrenia.
  Schizophrenia research 2019 Bradley ER, van Nieuwenhuizen A, Abram S, Niles AN, Woolley JD
• Social motivation in schizophrenia: The impact of oxytocin on vigor in the context of social and nonsocial reinforcement.
  Journal of abnormal psychology 2018 Fulford D, Treadway M, Woolley J
• Effects of oxytocin administration on receiving help.
  Emotion (Washington, D.C.) 2017 Human LJ, Woolley JD, Mendes WB
• Intranasal Oxytocin May Improve High-Level Social Cognition in Schizophrenia, But Not Social Cognition or Neurocognition in General: A Multilevel Bayesian Meta-analysis.
  Schizophrenia bulletin 2017 Bürkner PC, Williams DR, Simmons TC, Woolley JD
• Feasibility and preliminary efficacy of remotely delivering cognitive training to people with schizophrenia using tablets.
  Schizophrenia research. Cognition 2017 Biagianti B, Fisher M, Howard L, Rowlands A, Vinogradov S, Woolley J
• Oxytocin effects in schizophrenia: Reconciling mixed findings and moving forward.
  Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews 2017 Bradley ER, Woolley JD
• Combining oxytocin administration and positive emotion inductions: Examining social perception and analytical performance.
  Hormones and behavior 2017 Human LJ, Thorson KR, Woolley JD, Mendes WB
• Supplementing intensive targeted computerized cognitive training with social cognitive exercises for people with schizophrenia: An interim report.
  Psychiatric rehabilitation journal 2017 Fisher M, Nahum M, Howard E, Rowlands A, Brandrett B, Kermott A, Woolley J, Vinogradov S
• Intranasal oxytocin increases facial expressivity, but not ratings of trustworthiness, in patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls.
  Psychological medicine 2017 Woolley JD, Chuang B, Fussell C, Scherer S, Biagianti B, Fulford D, Mathalon DH, Vinogradov S
• Creating Live Interactions to Mitigate Barriers (CLIMB): A Mobile Intervention to Improve Social Functioning in People With Chronic Psychotic Disorders.
  JMIR mental health 2016 Biagianti B, Schlosser D, Nahum M, Woolley J, Vinogradov S
• The impact of CACNA1C gene, and its epistasis with ZNF804A, on white matter microstructure in health, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder1.
  Genes, brain, and behavior 2016 Mallas E, Carletti F, Chaddock CA, Shergill S, Woolley J, Picchioni MM, McDonald C, Toulopoulou T, Kravariti E, Kalidindi S, Bramon E, Murray R, Barker GJ, Prata DP
• American Alcohol Photo Stimuli (AAPS): A standardized set of alcohol and matched non-alcohol images.
  The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse 2016 Stauffer CS, Dobberteen L, Woolley JD
• A two-week pilot study of intranasal oxytocin for cocaine-dependent individuals receiving methadone maintenance treatment for opioid use disorder.
  Addiction research & theory 2016 Stauffer CS, Musinipally V, Suen A, Lynch KL, Shapiro B, Woolley JD
• The effects of intranasal oxytocin in opioid-dependent individuals and healthy control subjects: a pilot study.
  Psychopharmacology 2016 Woolley JD, Arcuni PA, Stauffer CS, Fulford D, Carson DS, Batki S, Vinogradov S
• Intranasal Oxytocin Selectively Modulates Social Perception, Craving, and Approach Behavior in Subjects With Alcohol Use Disorder.
  Journal of addiction medicine 2016 Mitchell JM, Arcuni PA, Weinstein D, Woolley JD
• Intranasal Oxytocin Mechanisms Can Be Better Understood, but Its Effects on Social Cognition and Behavior Are Not to Be Sniffed At.
  Biological psychiatry 2015 Quintana DS, Woolley JD
• Impaired Recognition and Regulation of Disgust Is Associated with Distinct but Partially Overlapping Patterns of Decreased Gray Matter Volume in the Ventroanterior Insula.
  Biological psychiatry 2015 Woolley JD, Strobl EV, Sturm VE, Shany-Ur T, Poorzand P, Grossman S, Nguyen L, Eckart JA, Levenson RW, Seeley WW, Miller BL, Rankin KP
• Oxytocin administration selectively improves olfactory detection thresholds for lyral in patients with schizophrenia.
  Psychoneuroendocrinology 2015 Woolley JD, Lam O, Chuang B, Ford JM, Mathalon DH, Vinogradov S
• Can we bottle psychosocial treatments for addiction? The role of oxytocin.
  The Journal of clinical psychiatry 2014 Stauffer CS, Woolley JD
• Oxytocin administration enhances controlled social cognition in patients with schizophrenia.
  Psychoneuroendocrinology 2014 Woolley JD, Chuang B, Lam O, Lai W, O'Donovan A, Rankin KP, Mathalon DH, Vinogradov S
• Are we really mapping psychosis risk? Neuroanatomical signature of affective disorders in subjects at ultra high risk.
  Psychological medicine 2014 Modinos G, Allen P, Frascarelli M, Tognin S, Valmaggia L, Xenaki L, Keedwell P, Broome M, Valli I, Woolley J, Stone JM, Mechelli A, Phillips ML, McGuire P, Fusar-Poli P
• Satiety-related hormonal dysregulation in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia.
  Neurology 2014 Woolley JD, Khan BK, Natesan A, Karydas A, Dallman M, Havel P, Miller BL, Rankin KP
• A new biomarker of hedonic eating? A preliminary investigation of cortisol and nausea responses to acute opioid blockade.
  Appetite 2013 Daubenmier J, Lustig RH, Hecht FM, Kristeller J, Woolley J, Adam T, Dallman M, Epel E
• Cannabis use and first-episode psychosis: relationship with manic and psychotic symptoms, and with age at presentation.
  Psychological medicine 2013 Stone JM, Fisher HL, Major B, Chisholm B, Woolley J, Lawrence J, Rahaman N, Joyce J, Hinton M, Johnson S, Young AH, MiData Consortium
• Reduced parahippocampal cortical thickness in subjects at ultra-high risk for psychosis.
  Psychological medicine 2013 Tognin S, Riecher-Rössler A, Meisenzahl EM, Wood SJ, Hutton C, Borgwardt SJ, Koutsouleris N, Yung AR, Allen P, Phillips LJ, McGorry PD, Valli I, Velakoulis D, Nelson B, Woolley J, Pantelis C, McGuire …
• BDNF serum concentrations show no relationship with diagnostic group or medication status in neurodegenerative disease.
  Current Alzheimer research 2012 Woolley JD, Strobl EV, Shelly WB, Karydas AM, Robin Ketelle RN, Wolkowitz OM, Miller BL, Rankin KP
• Schizophrenia or neurodegenerative disease prodrome? Outcome of a first psychotic episode in a 35-year-old woman.
  Psychosomatics 2012 Khan BK, Woolley JD, Chao S, See T, Karydas AM, Miller BL, Rankin KP
• The diagnostic challenge of psychiatric symptoms in neurodegenerative disease: rates of and risk factors for prior psychiatric diagnosis in patients with early neurodegenerative disease.
  The Journal of clinical psychiatry 2011 Woolley JD, Khan BK, Murthy NK, Miller BL, Rankin KP
• Neuromyelitis optica, psychiatric symptoms and primary polydipsia: a case report.
  General hospital psychiatry 2010 Woolley J, Douglas VC, Cree BA
• Frontotemporal dementia and mania.
  The American journal of psychiatry 2007 Woolley JD, Wilson MR, Hung E, Gorno-Tempini ML, Miller BL, Shim J
• Binge eating is associated with right orbitofrontal-insular-striatal atrophy in frontotemporal dementia.
  Neurology 2007 Woolley JD, Gorno-Tempini ML, Seeley WW, Rankin K, Lee SS, Matthews BR, Miller BL
• Opposing effects of intra-nucleus accumbens mu and kappa opioid agonists on sensory specific satiety.
  Neuroscience 2007 Woolley JD, Lee BS, Kim B, Fields HL
• Nucleus accumbens opioid signaling conditions short-term flavor preferences.
  Neuroscience 2007 Woolley JD, Lee BS, Taha SA, Fields HL
• Nucleus accumbens opioids regulate flavor-based preferences in food consumption.
  Neuroscience 2006 Woolley JD, Lee BS, Fields HL
• Endogenous opioids encode relative taste preference.
  The European journal of neuroscience 2006 Taha SA, Norsted E, Lee LS, Lang PD, Lee BS, Woolley JD, Fields HL
• The autonomic and behavioral profile of emotional dysregulation.
  Neurology 2004 Woolley JD, Gorno-Tempini ML, Werner K, Rankin KP, Ekman P, Levenson RW, Miller BL
• Cognitive and behavioral profile in a case of right anterior temporal lobe neurodegeneration.
  Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior 2004 Gorno-Tempini ML, Rankin KP, Woolley JD, Rosen HJ, Phengrasamy L, Miller BL
• Buccofacial apraxia and the expression of emotion.
  Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 2003 Woolley JD
• From simple desires to ordinary beliefs: the early development of everyday psychology.
  Cognition 1990 Wellman HM, Woolley JD