Joshua Woolley, MD, PhD

Assoc Professor In Residence

Psychiatry

+1 415 221-4810 ext. 4117

Dr. Josh Woolley is an Associate Professor in Residence in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) as well as a staff psychiatrist in Mental Health at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center (SFVAMC). He is Board Certified in Psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. 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.

Publications:

Maternal care is associated with neural and behavioral effects of oxytocin administration during empathic accuracy in schizophrenia and controls.

Psychoneuroendocrinology

Brown CK, De Coster L, Lee J, Lin L, Mathalon DH, Woolley JD

Editorial: Down the rabbit hole - the psychological and neural mechanisms of psychedelic compounds and their use in treating mental health and medical conditions.

Frontiers in psychiatry

Peled-Avron L, Aday JS, Kalafateli AL, Hamilton HK, Woolley JD

Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy: where is the psychotherapy research?

Psychopharmacology

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

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

Downey AE, Chaphekar AV, Woolley J, Raymond-Flesch M

Quantifying abnormal emotion processing: A novel computational assessment method and application in schizophrenia.

Psychiatry research

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

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

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, Kelly DF, Mletzko T, Nicholas CR, Hutson PR, Tarpley G, Utzinger M, Lenoch K, Warchol K, Gapasin T, Davis MC, Nelson-Douthit C, Wilson S, Brown C, Linton W, Ross S, Griffiths RR

"But the reality is it's happening": A qualitative study of eating disorder providers about psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy.

The International journal of eating disorders

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)

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)

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, Wells G, Klaire SS, van der Kolk B, Tzarfaty K, Amiaz R, Worthy R, Shannon S, Woolley JD, Marta C, Gelfand Y, Hapke E, Amar S, Wallach Y, Brown R, Hamilton S, Wang JB, Coker A, Matthews R, de Boer A, Yazar-Klosinski B, Emerson A, Doblin R

Emerging Challenges for Psychedelic Therapy.

JAMA psychiatry

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)

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

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)

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

Park J, Woolley J, Mendes WB

Prior trauma exposure, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.

Journal of psychiatric research

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Preliminary evidence that oxytocin does not improve mentalizing in women with schizophrenia.

Hormones and behavior

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

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)

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

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

Chuang BJ, Campellone TR, Woolley JD

Automatic Imitation in Comorbid PTSD & Alcohol Use Disorder and Controls: an RCT of Intranasal Oxytocin.

Psychoneuroendocrinology

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

Flanagan JC, Mitchell JM, Baker NL, Woolley J, Wangelin B, Back SE, McQuaid JR, Neylan TC, Woolfe WR, Brady KT

Oxytocin-enhanced group therapy for methamphetamine use disorder: Randomized controlled trial.

Journal of substance abuse treatment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

De Coster L, Lin L, Mathalon DH, Woolley JD

Psychedelic-Assisted Group Therapy: A Systematic Review.

Journal of psychoactive drugs

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

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

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

Stauffer CS, Moschetto JM, McKernan SM, Hsiang E, Borsari B, Woolley JD

Oxytocin does not improve working memory in schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia research

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

Fulford D, Treadway M, Woolley J

Effects of oxytocin administration on receiving help.

Emotion (Washington, D.C.)

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

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

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

Bradley ER, Woolley JD

Combining oxytocin administration and positive emotion inductions: Examining social perception and analytical performance.

Hormones and behavior

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stauffer CS, Woolley JD

Oxytocin administration enhances controlled social cognition in patients with schizophrenia.

Psychoneuroendocrinology

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

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

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

Daubenmier J, Lustig RH, Hecht FM, Kristeller J, Woolley J, Adam T, Dallman M, Epel E

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

Woolley JD, Khan BK, Murthy NK, Miller BL, Rankin KP

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Joshua Woolley, MD, PhD