What this is not
Counterculture nostalgia
No trippy aesthetic, no miracle language, no soft-focus wellness claims. Serious patients deserve better than a movement costume.
Physician-scientist | Psychiatric care | Psychedelic research
My goal: Help people struggling with addiction and depression to make a real change.
Dr. Stal Shrestha brings medical training, neuroscience research, and frontline clinical experience to one question: how can people with serious mental health conditions find a credible path forward?
MD, PhD
Psychiatry resident, Austin
NIH and UCSF research background
PET imaging, neuroinflammation, psychedelics
This is not 1960s flower power. It is not a guru promise, a retreat fantasy, or a shortcut around diagnosis. The work is grounded in decades of medical research, with Dr. Shrestha contributing to the science and applying what research can teach in real clinical settings.
The line we draw
Psychedelic medicine has to earn trust like any other medicine.
What it is
Evidence, diagnosis, supervision
Psychedelic-related care belongs inside careful psychiatric assessment, risk review, legal settings, psychotherapy, and follow-up.
Why he is credible
Research communities know the work
Dr. Shrestha's publication record spans PET imaging, receptor biology, neuroinflammation, antidepressant development, and psychedelic treatment directions.
Researcher and practitioner
He is not only studying treatments. He is seeing what severe suffering looks like in practice.
In hospital and clinical settings, Dr. Shrestha works around complex psychiatric and medical realities: severe PTSD, substance-use disorders, treatment-resistant depression, anxiety, trauma, and the human fallout that does not fit neatly into a paper abstract.
That practitioner knowledge matters. It keeps the science accountable to real people, real risk, and the possibility of profound positive change when care is structured, medically supervised, and honest about uncertainty.
The bridge
Research gives the map. Clinical work tests the terrain.
Decades of medical research
Psychedelic treatments are part of a longer scientific story: receptors, neural circuits, inflammation, plasticity, psychotherapy, and psychiatric outcomes.
Contribution to the science
Dr. Shrestha has added to the research base through peer-reviewed work in imaging, receptor biology, antidepressant effects, and neuroinflammation.
Education for people who need help
The goal is to help people understand addiction and depression clearly enough to pursue better mental health without getting lost in hype.
Education mission
Helping people separate hope from hype.
Addiction and depression can make a person desperate for any answer that sounds new. Dr. Shrestha's education work should give people a more useful kind of hope: what is known, what is still uncertain, who may be a candidate, who may be at risk, and why supervision matters.
The aim is not to sell psychedelics. The aim is to make credible mental health information easier to understand, so more people can find their way toward care that is serious, humane, and evidence-based.
Articles and research reports
His research, translated for non-scientists.
Each entry starts with a layperson's abstract, then links to the underlying paper or research profile for clinicians, researchers, and curious readers who want the source.
Whole-body PET imaging shows 11C-PS13 selectively measures COX-1 in humans
Lay abstract: This paper helps show that a PET scan can track a specific inflammation-related enzyme in living humans, not just in a lab model.
Research note: 11C-PS13 showed COX-1 selectivity and measured how strongly anti-inflammatory drugs block that target in vivo.
Read the paper11C-deschloroclozapine improves PET imaging of human muscarinic DREADDs
Lay abstract: The team tested a better way to visualize engineered brain receptors, helping researchers study targeted brain circuits with more precision.
Research note: PET scans in a rhesus macaque quantified transfected receptor signal, endogenous binding, and non-displaceable uptake.
Read the paperPET measurement of COX-2 in primate neuroinflammation and a first-in-human study
Lay abstract: This is directly relevant to brain health: it tests whether inflammation can be measured with PET imaging in the brain and body.
Research note: The novel tracer 11C-MC1 was evaluated in LPS-induced rhesus macaque neuroinflammation and in human rheumatoid arthritis imaging.
Read the paperProspective PET radioligands for imaging COX-2
Lay abstract: Before clinicians can image inflammation reliably, chemists need candidate tracers. This paper develops and screens those candidates.
Research note: The team synthesized COX-2 inhibitors, selected candidates with favorable potency and selectivity, and radiolabeled them for PET development.
Read the paperTwo PET radioligands for imaging COX-1 and COX-2 in rhesus monkeys
Lay abstract: This compares tools for visualizing two inflammation-related enzymes and identifies where each tracer works best.
Research note: 11C-PS13 showed specific uptake across organs, while 11C-MC1 showed limited organ-specific uptake under baseline conditions.
Read the paperCOX-1 PET radioligands, part 2: selecting 11C-PS13 for quantitative imaging
Lay abstract: This paper narrows several possible brain-imaging tracers down to a stronger candidate for measuring COX-1.
Research note: Candidate radioligands were evaluated in monkey brain, with 11C-PS13 selected for more favorable kinetics and blocking results.
Read the paperCOX-1 PET radioligands, part 1: synthesis and pharmacology
Lay abstract: This is the chemistry foundation for imaging neuroinflammation more precisely.
Research note: Seventeen triazole compounds were prepared and screened as direct-acting COX-1 PET radioligand candidates.
Read the paperHow ketamine may help treatment-resistant depression
Lay abstract: Ketamine is not a classic psychedelic, but this review explains why rapid-acting brain treatments became important in depression research.
Research note: The review summarizes NMDA receptor antagonism and downstream mechanisms proposed in ketamine's antidepressant effects.
Read the paper11C-ER176 can image TSPO across human affinity genotypes
Lay abstract: A common genetic issue can make inflammation imaging unreliable. This tracer was tested to work more consistently across people.
Research note: The TSPO radioligand 11C-ER176 showed adequate sensitivity for all three rs6971 affinity genotypes in human brain imaging.
Read the paper5-HT1A PET radioligand binding limits use of the cerebellum as a reference region
Lay abstract: The paper improves the quality control around serotonin brain imaging, which matters for depression and anxiety research.
Research note: CUMI-101 showed significant alpha-1 adrenoceptor binding in human cerebellum, complicating reference-region assumptions.
Read the paperTetratricopeptide repeat domain 9A and anxiety-like behavior
Lay abstract: This animal study looks at a gene-related pathway that may influence anxiety-like behavior, adding another layer to mood and stress biology.
Research note: The study investigated Ttc9A modulation of anxiety-like behavior in female mice.
Read the paperSocial dominance and cocaine self-administration in rats
Lay abstract: Addiction risk is shaped by biology and social context. This study links dominance behavior with cocaine-taking patterns in an animal model.
Research note: The work examined monoaminergic neurochemistry, impulsivity, and cocaine self-administration after social-rank assessment.
Read the paperSerotonergic markers predict flexible learning
Lay abstract: The study connects serotonin biology with the ability to adapt behavior when rules change, a theme relevant to compulsive and addictive patterns.
Research note: Markers in orbitofrontal cortex and dorsal raphe nucleus predicted serial reversal-learning variation.
Read the paperFluoxetine in juvenile monkeys: serotonin transporter and behavior
Lay abstract: This asks how early antidepressant exposure may shape the developing brain over time.
Research note: Juvenile fluoxetine exposure persistently upregulated serotonin transporter binding into young adulthood in rhesus monkeys.
Read the paper11C-CUMI-101 behaves as a 5-HT1A antagonist and binds alpha-1 adrenoceptors
Lay abstract: This helps researchers interpret serotonin PET scans more cautiously and accurately.
Research note: In vitro and in vivo studies showed CUMI-101 did not behave as a simple 5-HT1A agonist tracer.
Read the paperAntidepressant effects on serotonin 1A/1B receptors in a gene by environment model
Lay abstract: This studies why antidepressants can work differently depending on biology and life stress.
Research note: The work examined serotonin receptor changes after antidepressant exposure in a rat gene-environment model.
Read the paperPrenatal desvenlafaxine and behavior in mice
Lay abstract: This paper studies how antidepressant exposure before birth may affect later behavior in an animal model.
Research note: The study evaluated behavioral alterations after prenatal desvenlafaxine exposure in Swiss albino mice.
Read the paperThe serotonergic system and antidepressants during brain development
Lay abstract: Dr. Shrestha's PhD work connects serotonin, antidepressant exposure, PET imaging, and brain development.
Research note: The dissertation examined serotonin transporter and receptor biology using in vivo PET imaging and in vitro receptor binding.
View thesis listingDopamine, GABA, and impulsivity markers in rats
Lay abstract: Impulsivity is one pathway into addiction and relapse. This paper maps related brain-chemistry markers in reward and control regions.
Research note: Dopaminergic and GABA-ergic markers were localized in ventral striatum and prefrontal cortex in relation to impulsivity.
Read the paperSerotonin-1A receptors in major depression measured with PET
Lay abstract: This review explains why measuring serotonin receptors in depression is scientifically difficult and how future PET studies can be more reliable.
Research note: The paper reviews controversies, confounds, and recommendations for PET quantification of 5-HT1A receptors in major depression.
Read the paperPsychedelic treatments for addiction and mood disorders
Lay abstract: The next chapter is translating this neuroscience background into treatments for depression, anxiety, addiction, PTSD, and trauma.
Research note: Public profile materials describe work on rapid therapeutic effects of psychedelics across neurotherapeutics, neuroplasticity, neuromodulation, and neuroinflammation.
Research profileMedical and research path
The credibility is specific.
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Now
Psychiatry residency, Austin
Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin lists Dr. Shrestha in the psychiatry residency class of 2027.
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UCSF
Physician-scientist and addiction research
Clinical and translational interest in psychedelic treatments for substance-use and mood disorders.
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NIH
Molecular imaging and biomarkers
Postdoctoral and medical-scientist work in PET radioligands, neuroinflammation, and receptor biology.
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Karolinska
PhD in clinical neuroscience
Doctoral work on serotonin, antidepressants, brain development, PET imaging, and receptor binding.
Next step
Build public education around addiction, depression, and evidence-based psychedelic care.
Use this section for clinical inquiry routing, research collaborations, speaking requests, and educational updates once the practice details are finalized.