Psychedelic Research in Canada Turns to Pain Care: $2M for Hamilton Trials

In a survey of 295 patients at an orthopaedic fracture clinic in Hamilton, Ontario, 24% said they had used a psychedelic before. Only 3%, ten people, had ever discussed psychedelics with a healthcare provider, even though nearly half said they would be highly comfortable doing so.

That gap is the backdrop to a new investment in psychedelic research in Canada. On October 2, 2026, St. Joseph's Healthcare Foundation announced two philanthropic gifts of $1 million each to the Centre for Health Innovation and Research in Psychedelics (CHIRP) at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton, the hospital where the survey was conducted. The donors are Hamilton entrepreneur and philanthropist Teresa Cascioli and the trustees of The Juravinski Foundation.

For practitioners, the notable detail is where the money is going. It is not funding a new compound. According to the release, the $2 million will help the Centre "establish its physical footprint through dedicated treatment spaces at the hospital and in the community while recruiting the research staff needed" for a growing number of clinical trials. In other words, it is paying for rooms and people.

Medically reviewed by Jacque Lovely, RN, MN, MBA, PMP, Reg #74334.

What was announced

CHIRP launched last fall and is led by Dr. Anthony Adili, an orthopaedic surgeon who serves as the Centre's Founding Director and the hospital's Chief Innovation Officer. The release describes its purpose as to "ethically and responsibly study" whether carefully dosed, medical-grade psychedelics can help with conditions including chronic pain, addiction, treatment-resistant depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and neurodegenerative diseases.

The release describes three funded projects, two psilocybin trials and a national extension of the second:

Psilocybin for chronic musculoskeletal pain. Dr. Adili is leading a randomized, double-blind trial testing whether psilocybin can relieve chronic musculoskeletal pain that has not responded to standard treatments, including in patients on long-term opioid therapy.

Psilocybin for cannabis use disorder. Dr. Michael Van Ameringen and Dr. James MacKillop are investigating whether psilocybin combined with psychotherapy can safely help people with moderate-to-severe cannabis use disorder reduce their symptoms.

A national extension. The same two investigators lead a $2.4 million project funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to extend early findings from that study as part of the national Canadian Cannabis and Brain Health Consortium.

Caution is in order: this is a foundation announcement, not a peer-reviewed publication. The release refers to "promising early findings" in cannabis use disorder but reports no data, and statements about the promise of these therapies are the institution's own. Dr. Adili acknowledges the gap: "We know potential and promise are not enough. That's why we're producing rigorous evidence to guide clinicians, patients and policymakers."

Why the focus on pain and addiction matters

Much of the public conversation about psychedelic-assisted therapy has centred on depression and PTSD. The Hamilton program is led by a surgeon and anchored in pain and addiction medicine, which widens the group of clinicians likely to meet these questions.

The survey that opens this article, posted as a preprint by a team that includes CHIRP investigators, offers a glimpse of why. Conducted between June and December 2025, it found that 73% of respondents reported moderate-to-severe pain and 41% reported using opioids. Just over half (52%) reported moderate-to-high willingness to take part in a trial of psilocybin for pain relief, and health risks were the most commonly cited concern. The preprint has not been peer reviewed, and the authors note that the single-centre, predominantly older and white sample restricts how far the findings generalize.

Hamilton is not the only Canadian hospital studying this area. In August 2026, a team at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto published a pilot feasibility trial in the journal Med in which 30 people with chronic neuropathic pain were randomly assigned to ketamine infusions, weekly psychotherapy, or both. According to the University of Toronto's summary, all three groups reported improvements, and nearly 80% of the combined group reported a clinically meaningful reduction in pain interference, compared with 50% to 60% in the single-treatment groups. With 30 participants split across three groups, the study is too small to show that the combination is superior, and the team is planning a larger, placebo-controlled multi-centre trial.

What this means for practitioners in Canada

Clinical trials remain the main pathway. Health Canada's 2023 notice to stakeholders states that its case-by-case authorization pathway, initiated by a physician, is not intended to conduct research or to "bypass the clinical trial or drug review process," and that practitioners filing a request must comply with the requirements of their provincial or territorial regulatory bodies. Hospital research programs are therefore likely to generate much of the near-term Canadian evidence and many of the clinical roles.

Capacity is a workforce question. The gifts are earmarked in part for recruiting research staff. Trials that pair a psychedelic with psychotherapy depend on clinicians who are competent in screening, preparation, supervised session support and follow-up care, across nursing, medicine, psychology and counselling.

Patients may be ahead of the conversation. If the Hamilton survey reflects a wider pattern, many patients are not raising psychedelics with their care teams. Practitioners do not need to offer these therapies to discuss the evidence, risks and legal pathways accurately and without judgment.

The evidence is still early. The announcement reports no results from any of the three projects. Findings in pain and addiction should be read as preliminary until controlled data are available, and they do not predict outcomes for any individual patient.

Preparing for a field that is building its foundations

Announcements like this one suggest that Canadian psychedelic research is broadening beyond psychiatry and investing in the people who deliver care. For healthcare professionals who want a structured grounding in this area, ATMA CENA's Advanced Pathways are complete programs that include the Psychedelic Therapy Foundations course as part one, with most coursework delivered online. You can explore the options on the psychedelic therapy training page, or book a call with a program advisor to talk through whether training fits your practice.

Sources

1. Two Million-Dollar Gifts Propel Research into the Promise of Psychedelics at St. Joe's. St. Joseph's Healthcare Foundation, via Cision Newswire, 2026.
2. Two Million-Dollar Gifts will support research into Psychedelics at St. Joe's. The Bay Observer, 2026.
3. Patient perceptions towards psychedelics for musculoskeletal pain: A cross-sectional survey. medRxiv (preprint, not peer reviewed), 2026.
4. Ketamine and psychotherapy show promise as a combined treatment for chronic neuropathic pain. University of Toronto News, 2026.
5. Notice to stakeholders: requests involving psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Health Canada, 2023.