The future of mental health treatment is looking more psychedelic. A form of LSD has just shown the most promising findings yet for treating clinical depression. On Monday morning, Definium Therapeutics announced the primary data from a Phase III trial testing its proprietary version of LSD, codenamed DT120. People with major depression taking a single dose of DT120 experienced a significantly greater reduction in their symptoms than those taking a placebo, the trial found. The company is planning to seek an expedited approval of its drug from the Food and Drug Administration.
“While I can’t speculate on what will happen post-approval, I can share that these results demonstrate unprecedented and highly differentiated efficacy and could potentially be practice-changing for many providers,” lead trial researcher John Sonnenberg, a clinical psychologist and faculty member at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, told Gizmodo. The biggest test of LSD for depression LSD is short for lysergic acid diethylamide, though it’s also called lysergide. LSD is a semisynthetic drug derived from the ergot fungus and is well known for its psychedelic and hallucinogenic effects. It’s usually taken as an oral tablet, with its effects typically lasting between 6 and 12 hours, depending on the dosage.
