Francesca Small joined King’s College London in 2021 as part of the MSc Addictions programme at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN). In 2022, she began her first research role as a Research Assistant in the Addictions Department, working on projects examining psychedelic-assisted treatments for substance use disorders.

Francesca holds a BSc in Psychology from Nottingham Trent University and an MSc in Addictions from King’s College London. She is now in her first year as a PhD researcher in the Addictions Department at the IoPPN, where her work focuses on reducing respiratory health inequalities among individuals with substance use disorders, with the aim of improving treatment pathways and quality of life.

Her areas of research expertise include psychedelic-assisted therapies, substance use disorder treatment, respiratory health inequalities, and addiction science. Francesca is the co-lead author of a published systematic review on psychedelic-assisted treatments for substance use disorders, as well as a co-author of a published phase 2a open-label clinical trial investigating 5-MeO-DMT combined with CBT for alcohol use disorder. She has also been acknowledged for her contributions to multiple papers involving extended-release buprenorphine trials.

Research Interests

• Psychedelic-assisted therapies
• Substance use disorder treatment
• Respiratory health inequalities
• Addiction science
• Statistics