DMT to be used in trial as a treatment for depression

The drug dimethyltriptamine (DMT) is to be used in a trial as a possible treatment for depression.

The psychedelic, which Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh has spoken of taking, will be used along with a psychotherapy session to see its effects.

It's reported DMT will first be given to people not suffering with depression, before then being given to those who are suffering with depression.

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Small Pharma is running the trial alongside Imperial College London. Small Pharma's chief scientific and medical officer Carol Routledge said: “The psychedelic drug breaks up all of the ruminative thought processes in your brain – it literally undoes what has been done by either the stress you’ve been through or the depressive thoughts you have – and hugely increases the making of new connections.

“Then the [psychotherapy] session afterwards is the letting-things-settle piece of things – it helps you to make sense of those thoughts and puts you back on the right track. We think this could be a treatment for a number of depressive disorders besides major depression, including PTSD, treatment-resistant depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and possibly some types of substance abuse.”

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It's not a first for Class A drugs being used in clinical trials. Scientists have tested MDMA's impact as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Scientists have also recommended taking MDMA to deal with the effects of the coronavirus-caused lockdown.

[Photo: Lindsay Cameron and Lee Dunlap]

Dave Turner is Mixmag's Commercial Content Editor, follow him on Twitter

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