Awakn Life Sciences will be carrying out the first-ever study investigating the use of ketamine treatment for gambling addiction, using psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.
Biotechnology company Awakn Life Sciences, which is due to open two psychedelic therapy clinics in the UK in the next few months, and more next year, has received ethical committee approval to carry out a study investigating the use of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of gambling addiction.
Gambling addiction is a serious issue, with the burden of harm being similar to the harm attributed to major depressive disorder and alcohol misuse and dependence, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), which is substantially higher than harm attributed to drug dependence disorder. It is estimated that in the UK 8.66 million people are problem gamblers, with the issue costing between £260m and £1.2bn per year.
Currently, there are no licensed pharmacological treatments of gambling disorder available.
Treatment for gambling addiction
Through the exploration of a new treatment approach for gambling addiction, the study will look at whether ketamine administration can modify the reward memories associated with gambling. This will tackle both the urge to gamble and the “superstitious thinking” that accompanies gambling.
The study, which has now initiated recruitment for participants, is to be led by Ph.D. professor of psychopharmacology at the University of Exeter, Celia Morgan, who is head of Awakn’s ketamine-assisted psychotherapy for addiction and an internationally respected expert in the therapeutic use of ketamine.
Professor Morgan commented: “This study is an exciting first step toward a new treatment for gambling disorder, and one which will give new insights into the neurobiology of this damaging and often overlooked addiction, we are delighted that Awakn is able to take the lead in developing solutions to address this growing unmet treatment need.”
Awakn, whose strategy is to develop and deliver proprietary psychedelic therapeutics to better treat both substance addiction and behavioural addiction, hopes the study will give hope of a new treatment for people whose lives have been destroyed by gambling.
The company also has an extensive preclinical and clinical IP portfolio focused on substance and behavioural addiction treatment. This includes 10 patent filings covering multiple chemical series and clinical targets, a completed Phase II ab trial for ketamine-assisted psychotherapy to treat Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD), a planned Phase IIb trial for MDMA as a treatment for AUD and a two-stage pre-clinical drug discovery programme developing next generation psychedelic medicines to treat addiction.
