Here’s what’s in store for you in today’s issue:
🍄 Tripping with strangers
🍄 A new depression study
🍄 Treating gambling addiction
🍄 Say goodbye to munchies
🍄 And more.
You’ll want to stay till the end to learn how someone became their 5 year old self and conquered their depression!
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“This will be the broadest study of its kind.”
This morning, Braxia Scientific (BRAX) announced that it’s launching Canada’s first multiple-dose psilocybin trial for treatment resistant depression (TRD).
Most TRD studies recruit patients who have tried a maximum of five other treatment options, but this study will have no upper limit on the number of failed treatments. Braxia researchers will even include patients who’ve gone through dozens of medical trials with no success, including ketamine and electroconvulsive therapy patients.
The randomized clinical trial will also include some patients with bipolar depression or comormid disorders, which are typically excluded from psychedelic studies.
“By including everyone with more than two failed medical trials, we are increasing the degree to which the results can be applied to a larger population, making our findings much stronger”, said the trial’s principal investigator.
Psilocybin isn’t the only psychedelic that’s being studied for addiction treatment!
Awakn Life Sciences (AWKN) has received approval for the first-ever study on ketamine in gambling addiction – a disorder that affects 10 million people in the US alone, yet has no licensed pharmacological treatment.
The company will use ketamine-assisted psychotherapy to tackle the urge to gamble as well as superstitious thinking that’s at the root of the addiction.
Awakn is also investigating the effects of ketamine and MDMA in treating alcohol use disorder (AUD).
The nausea from shrooms can make you not want to eat, but can they prevent over-eating even after the trip is over?
A University of Florida study conducted by Tryp Therapeutics (TRYP) will reveal the answer. This week, the company finished training its psychotherapists for an upcoming Phase 2a clinical trial on over-eating disorders. The training was led by a psychedelic therapy training company called Fluence.
The patients will receive two doses of TRP-8802, Tryp’s oral formulation of synthetic psilocybin, in addition to preparation and integration sessions.
Can you get the benefits of psilocybin with just a microdose? That’s what Mindset Pharma Inc. (MSET) is trying to determine.
The company recently developed a family of psilocybin analogs designed for microdosing. In preclinical studies, the compounds were found to have about 1/10th of the effect on 5-HT2A receptors as psilocybin, but with extended duration, which indicates that they will be ideal for once a day or once every other day dosing.
Mindset plans to test the compounds in preclinical animal models to determine if microdosing has cognitive enhancing effects.
“We have a crisis of loneliness and isolation.” Is group psychedelic therapy the solution?
This week, the Institute for Integrative Therapies (IIT) in Minnesota began offering ketamine-assisted therapy in group settings, and will soon offer group therapy with psilocybin and MDMA too.
Group sessions can provide a powerful healing experience and a sense of connection, plus they’re much cheaper than one-on-one sessions at just $500 per person for a 3-hour experience.
Participants work with a therapist both individually and in group settings to prepare for the experience before laying on a floor mat and tripping in a room full of strangers. Each group has a focus such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, existential crises, grief, end of life distress, and LGBTQ experiences.
Most psychedelics are administered through the digestive tract, but this can require higher dosages, slow the absorption, and can have unwanted side effects. Psycheceutical Inc. is taking a different route.
The Miami-based company just received two patents that could turn psychedelics into take-at-home drugs.
The first is for the Janus particle technology, which uses layers of nanoparticles to target specific cells. The technology can deliver multiple medicines simultaneously at different rates and times.
The second patent is for the company’s NeuroDirect technology, a delivery system that administers compounds directly to nerve connections in the brain. This method bypasses the blood-brain-barrier, which will allow for smaller doses, faster responses, and improved efficacy.
South Africa’s first cannabis company is shifting to psilocybin, which shouldn’t be a surprise given its name – Cilo Cybin Pharmaceutical Ltd.
The company recently applied for a research permit to study psilocybin for depression, anxiety, and PTSD. “I really think it is going to be a lot bigger than cannabis even,” said the CEO.
He plans to take the company public on the Johannesburg and Luxembourg Stock Exchanges within the next 12 months.
This pharmaceutical company is ditching its Covid-19 treatment to focus on psychedelic medicine.
A Toronto pharmaceutical company, FSD Pharma (HUGE), announced a definite agreement to acquire the psychedelic company Lucid Psycheceuticals Inc. for CAD$11.3M. The agreement was announced just one day after the company terminated the Phase 2 clinical trial for its Covid-19 treatment because it was unlikely to be commercially viable.
FSD Pharma went public in May of 2018 and currently trades on the CSE, NASDAQ, and FRA.
California’s psychedelics decriminalization bill, SB519, has been put on hold until 2022, but it may be for the best.
The bill has already been approved by the Senate and 2 of 3 assembly committees, but has now been made into a two-year bill, meaning it won’t advance to the floor until next year.
Senator Scott Wiener (D), the bill’s sponsor, decided put things on pause as more time is needed to build the case for decriminalization and generate support.
“Now that we have more time, I’m optimistic through education and member engagement we can pass this critical legislation next year,” he explained.
September 19th marks the one-year anniversary of when Ann Arbor, Michigan deprioritized many psychedelics including psilocybin. To celebrate, the city is launching the first ever Entheofest – a free event that promotes the benefits of natural psychedelics and encourages activism toward decriminalization.
The celebration will include live music and speeches from psychedelic activists such as William Leonard Pickard (aka the “Acid King”), a researcher who served 20 years in prison for manufacturing 400 million doses of acid.
Ann Arbor officially recognizes September as Entheogenic Plant and Fungi Awareness Month after a 10-0 City Council vote to promote the benefits of psychedelics and honour ancestral relationships with entheogens.
This Reddit user said he conquered his depression after splitting a 7g chocolate bar with his girlfriend.
“Everytime i closed my eyes before it was constant changing visuals. But this one time i closed my eyes and it was different. Instead of changing patterns and energy i saw a crystal clear image. Like opening my eyes in the normal world.
At first everything was blurry. I was seeing branches and leaves. I saw morning dew on the leaves with the sun shinning through a drop. Slowly it all came into focus. The leaves. The sky. The clouds. Slowly my vision almost zoomed out. I knew where i was. I was on my old bffs trampoline in his backyard, laying on my back looking at the sky.
All of a sudden a rush of emotion. Or almost lack of. I felt what it was like to be 5 years old again. What it felt like before life got it’s evil hands on me. Before the stress and pain of the world hit me. The feeling that i could be anything if i believed. I shot my eyes open and sat up. I could hardly breath i was so shocked. My gf said “what’s wrong what’s wrong!” I looked at her and said “I-I I was there.” She asked where. I said “t-the trampoline,” “I was 5!” Tears bursted out of my face. So much was running through my brain. I had felt the little boy inside me when he had been hiding for a long time.
I explained to her what i felt. I started confronting my depression. The years and years of built up pain came out in hard sobbing. Yet the sobbing was so good. It was needed. It was crying that had been jarred up over the course of years. I remember asking “Where did he go? Where did that little boy go?” Just thinking about all those suicidal days. I cried for hours while my girlfriend held me. When i finished crying i knew that the little boy inside me. The fun loving, people loving, bubbly little boy was coming back.”
