One of the most prevalent concerns surrounding the use of psychedelics is the possibility that the user may experience negative psychedelic effects. When taking LSD, these can include anxiety, paranoia, or loss of trust towards others; all of which are distressing. The culmination of these experiences is popularly referred to as a ‘bad trip’.
As a growing number of researchers and Companies attempt to move psychedelics away from their recreational, illicit settings and toward more medical, therapeutic ones, managing the consistency of responses to sunstances such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is very important. The importance of these concerns only increases when considering the expected recipients of these substances: those with mental health issues such as treatment-resistant depression or PTSD.
It’s not hard to imagine why a bad trip may result in a net disbenefit to a patient seeking to resolve PTSD. Acute anxiety has also been linked to less favourable long-term outcomes in patients treated with LSD (in experimental settings) for depression.
With this in mind, a new Clinical Trial, registered yesterday with ClinicalTrials.gov, seeks to reduce the risk of negative psychedelic effects when taking LSD. The Trial hypothesises that co-administering MDMA with LSD may mitigate the negative psychedelic effects, due to MDMA’s observed ability to reliably induce positive mood.
We believe this Clinical Trial, and its results, belong to MindMed. MindMed holds a licence to 8 Clinical Trials related to LSD with the University Hospital Basel in Switzerland, and recently set-up a European subsidiary in the same country.
Recruitment of the 24 participants has yet to begin. We will keep you updated on the progress and results of this exciting study.
