New treatment for depression |
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Boom in psychedelic therapies?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/20/magic-mushrooms-set-become-uks-ultimate-weapon-against-depression/ https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/apr/12/psilocybin-depression-brain-break-out-of-a-rut-magic-mushrooms Short-acting drugs, psychedelic experience, two-hour therapy session. Resetting brain networks Helping to end ingrained negative patterns of thought, and making patients far more receptive to therapy. Small Pharma https://smallpharma.com Leading the world’s first regulated clinical trial, DMT (dimethyltryptamine) with psychotherapy for major depressive disorder. Phase one done on healthy volunteers Next few months, reports from 42 patients Dr Carol Routledge, chief medical and scientific officer We think that this treatment will really get to the root cause, rather than just dampening symptoms Almost immediate benefits Based on initial data that we already have, and other companies have, there’s going to be a fairly immediate impact In terms of the psychedelic experience, we’re talking about 20 minutes, and then the integration therapy afterwards, we expect the antidepressant activity to be extremely durable … to last maybe three, four or five months Imaging data Psychedelics work on the brain networks Making neural connections more flexible to brain plasticity You can reset those networks in the brain, and then that leaves the brain much more receptive to therapy, which is why we bring it in straight afterwards Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway (ILAP) Brings organisations together Speed up the time getting meds to patients Other companies testing MDMA 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine Therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) Psilocybin, (Clerkenwell Health) Depression Smoking Terminal illness Psychedelic experience Out-of-body sensations Visual or aural hallucinations Psilocybin microdosers demonstrate greater observed improvements in mood and mental health at one month relative to non-microdosing controls https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-14512-3#Tab2 University of British Columbia, Vancouver, July, 2022 Psilocybin microdosing Repeated self-administration of mushrooms containing psilocybin, at doses small enough to not impact regular functioning. 3–5 times per week, of 0.1 to 0.3 g of dried mushrooms Naturalistic, observational design Study approved, University of British Columbia Research Ethics Board (H19-03051) Psilocybin microdosers (n = 953) Non-microdosing comparators (n = 180) For approximately 30 days Identified small- to medium-sized improvements in mood and mental health, that were generally consistent across gender, age and presence of mental health concerns Improved psychomotor performance in older adults. Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale https://proceduresonline.com/trixcms2/media/11957/depression-anxiety-and-stress-scale-dass21.pdf Adults who microdose psychedelics report health related motivations and lower levels of anxiety and depression compared to non-microdosers https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-01811-4 Large international sample of adults microdosers (n = 4050) non-microdosers (n = 4653) Psilocybin, 85% of microdosers, (LSD, 11%) microdosers exhibited lower levels of depression, anxiety, and stress across gender microdosers were less likely to use alcohol regularly and were more likely to abstain from alcohol entirely microdosers were more likely to abstain from the use of nicotine Psilocybin, in 10mg or 25mg doses, has no short- or long-term detrimental effects in healthy people https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/psilocybin-in-10mg-or-25mg-doses-has-no-short-or-long-term-detrimental-effects-in-healthy-people https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02698811211064720 The therapeutic potential of microdosing psychedelics in depression https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7457631/ Micro dose, 5% to 10% of psychotropic dose LSD (10–20 mcg) Psilocybin (less than 1–3 mg), have subtle (positive) effects on cognitive processes (time perception, convergent and divergent thinking) and brain regions involved in affective processes. |