Stephen Ross, MD

Dr. Stephen Ross is a Research Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Dr. Ross is a founding member of the NYU Psychedelic Research Group and is currently associate director of NYU Langone’s Center for Psychedelic Medicine and director of the Psychedelic Medicine Research Training Program. In 21 years at NYU Langone and NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, Dr. Ross has been involved in a variety of leadership roles in administration, teaching, and research. He previously served as Director of the Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse in the Psychiatry Department at Bellevue for 12 years, Director of Addiction Psychiatry at NYU Langone’s Tisch Hospital, Director of the NYU Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship, Director of the Bellevue Inpatient Dual Diagnosis Training Unit, and Director of the Bellevue Opioid Overdose Prevention Program. Dr. Ross has received over a dozen teaching awards at NYU Langone and nationally over the last 21 years. Dr. Ross’s main research interests focus on developing novel pharmacologic-psychosocial approaches to treating addictive disorders, including the intersection between pain and addiction; psychiatric and existential distress associated with advanced or terminal cancer; major depression; PTSD; and personality disorders. Dr. Ross is principal investigator or co-principal investigator on several ongoing and completed psychedelic-focused studies at NYU Langone including a phase II RCT studying the efficacy of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy in patients with life-threatening cancer-related psychiatric and existential distress, a phase II RCT studying the effects of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy in alcohol use disorder, a phase I/II controlled trial administering psilocybin to religious professionals, and a phase II RCT of psilocybin treatment for major depressive disorder. Dr. Ross also acts as a co-investigator and study therapist for phase II/III trials of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD and is an expert in cannabinoid therapeutics and PI of a NIDA-funded study of CBD administration in patients with chronic radicular pain on chronic opioid therapy.