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Investigational drugs in PTSD

Neuropsychopharmacology (2026)Cite this article

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Abstract

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) remains one of psychiatry’s most challenging disorders, common, disabling, and biologically complex. Despite decades of research, only sertraline and paroxetine are FDA-approved, both with modest efficacy. Even first-line trauma-focused psychotherapies leave up to half of patients with persistent symptoms. However, advances in neurobiology are reframing PTSD as a disorder of maladaptive stress circuitry, neuroplasticity, and memory reconsolidation, opening new therapeutic possibilities. This comprehensive review examines current PTSD pharmacotherapy, emerging neurobiological targets, and investigational treatments, highlighting 45 actively enrolling clinical trials. Emerging approaches target the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, adrenergic signaling, glutamatergic/GABAergic systems, endocannabinoids, neuropeptides, and serotonergic-based psychedelics. Rapid-acting interventions represent a major advance in PTSD therapeutics. Ketamine produces symptom reductions within hours, MDMA-assisted psychotherapy has demonstrated Phase 3 efficacy, and neurosteroids offer novel approaches to targeting hyperarousal. However, questions remain regarding durability, optimal dosing, patient selection, precision approaches, and long-term safety. Several early-stage assets also show preliminary promise but require rigorous evaluation. At the same time, the development pipeline remains unforgiving: many mechanistically plausible candidates, from NK-1 antagonists to AMPA modulators, have failed in late-stage trials, often due to high placebo responses, patient heterogeneity despite subtype-specific medication targets, and translational gaps. Brexpiprazole’s recent FDA rejection, despite supportive early data, underscores persistent regulatory hurdles. While traditional approaches remain standard of care, breakthrough therapies represent paradigm shifts toward disease modification. Future progress depends on biomarker-guided precision medicine, novel trial designs to mitigate placebo effects, and integration of pharmacologic innovations with evidence-based psychotherapies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Ted Obi

  2. Mclean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Belmont, CA, USA

    Kerry J. Ressler

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  1. Ted Obi
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  2. Kerry J. Ressler
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TO Conceptualization, literature review, data extraction, manuscript drafting, and figure/table preparation. KJR: Conceptualization, critical revision of the manuscript, manuscript drafting, and figure/table preparation.

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Correspondence to Ted Obi.

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Competing interests

TO no disclosures. KJR has performed scientific consultation for Bioxcel, Bionomics, Acer, Leal Therapeutics, and Jazz Pharma; serves on Scientific Advisory Boards for Sage, Boehringer Ingelheim, Senseye, and the Brain Research Foundation; and he has received sponsored research support from Alto Neuroscience. He receives research funding from the NIH, DARPA, DOD, and the Wellcome Leap Foundation.

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Obi, T., Ressler, K.J. Investigational drugs in PTSD. Neuropsychopharmacol. (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-026-02371-9

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