MindBio has been granted ethics approval for the world’s first Phase 2a trial of microdosing LSD at home for patients with Major Depressive Disorder.
The trial has also received approval from the Clinical Trials Registry.
New Zealand will be the location of the trial which will involve twenty participants who suffer from Major Depressive Disorder.
They will be observed over a period of eight weeks while they microdose LSD.
The results will inform a larger Phase 2b trial. In 2022, MindBio announced the results of their Phase 1 trial involving eighty healthy participants microdosing LSD.
Results of that study found those that microdose LSD experienced increases in happiness, social connectivity, creativity, wellness, and energy.
Other psychedelics such as psilocybin, the psychoactive compound found in magic mushrooms, have shown positive results in previous studies for treating depression.
Ketamine is another drug that is currently being used as a treatment for depression as well.
There is research to suggest that microdosing and its positive effects remain inconclusive. Former studies have indicated that the effect of microdosing was no stronger than a placebo.
Placebo effects have shown remarkable capacity for treatment, but the science behind this remains unknown.
Chief Executive Officer of MindBio Therapeutics, Justin Hanka said “We are pleased to be advancing our microdosing treatments to Phase 2 clinical trials. Psychedelic microdosing proposes to be a globally scalable solution to treating mental health conditions and we are excited by the data we are seeing and the potential future commercialization opportunities for these medicines.”
