Treatment Resistant Depression (TRD)

The future of anti-depressive therapy

20% of patients suffering from depression do not respond to current therapy. Treatment Resistant Depression (TRD) is a debilitating disease. Patients suffering from TRD have very few treatment options available to relieve their symptoms. Recently, scientific studies have shown the efficacy of a new class of compounds for the treatment of TRD

WHO estimates the at least 350 million people worldwide suffer from depression. Current antidepressant drugs have several shortcomings and adverse effects, and up to 2/3 of treated patients do not respond. Thus, there is a large unmet need for novel therapies and treatment strategies capable of alleviating treatment-resistant depression (TRD).

In recent years, the interest in psilocybin and other classical psychedelics as novel treatments of depression and other psychiatric disorders has increased dramatically. In striking contrast to the current antidepressants, several studies have found single-dose administration of psilocybin to produce rapid onset (within days) of long-lasting (months) antidepressant effects in depression and TRD patients. [1]

In these studies treatment-resistant patients, defined as depressed patients having tried at least three current anti-depressant treatments without effect, were given a single bolus dose of Psilocybin under supervision of health professionals. After 6 months studies showed up to 50% remission based on BDI scores (depression severity).

Psilocybin is currently undergoing PII clinical trials and COMPASS PATHWAYS has been granted “break-through therapy” status for Psilocybin by the FDA

Efficacy of these compounds is thought to arise from their activity at the Serotonin 2A receptor. Activation of this receptor is thought to reduce activity in the default mode network, or resting-state, of the human brain, while reducing activity of the amygdala, responsible for the “fight or flight” response and related to general anxiety.[2] The ability of the human brain to make new connections and change its neural structure is known as neuroplasticity and compounds that enhance this ability have been coined psychoplastogens.

Statements on Psilocybin

Psilocybin. has garnered increasing attention in scientific and public media.

” Its very unusual you find something like this, where so little does so much”-About Psilocybin

Tim Ferris

Entrepreneur, Author, Podcaster and Philantropist.

-In conversation with Roland Griffiths

” They work in a different way than anti-depressants and thats one of the reasons they really could be a solution for depression ” -On classic Psychedelics

Robin Carhart-Harris PhD

Head of Psyschedelic Research Group at Imperial College London

” In a way, a psychedelic experience is like resetting a computer, in a literal sense, a rewiring of the brain is taking place “

Roland Griffiths PhD