Braxia Scientific will be carrying out a landmark clinical trial investigating multiple-dose psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression.
Canada’s first multiple-dose psilocybin study for treatment-resistant depression will be carried out by Braxia at its Canadian Rapid Treatment Centers, which will include adults with treatment-resistant depression as well as adults who have previously tried electroconvulsive therapy and/or intravenous ketamine.
A first-of-its-kind study
The medical research company, which operates centres providing innovative ketamine treatments for persons with depression and related disorders, will commence the randomised clinical trial using psilocybin and psychedelic-assisted therapy.
The trial’s principal investigator and medical director of the Canadian Rapid Treatment Centre of Excellence Inc., Dr Joshua Rosenblat, said: “This will be the broadest study of its kind. Whereas most other treatment-resistant depression studies limit participation to patients that have not found relief from a maximum of five other potential remedies, our research will not have an upper limit, and will even include patients that have endured dozens of unsuccessful medical trials, including ketamine and electroconvulsive therapy.
“By including everyone with more than two failed medical trials, we are increasing the degree to which the results can be applied to a larger population, making our findings much stronger. Furthermore, we will have less exclusion criteria and are even including patients with bipolar depression – a huge first for the field – or comorbid disorders, which were excluded in psilocybin studies done by other companies.”
Braxia Scientific CEO, Dr Roger McIntyre, added: ”Integrating psilocybin provides immense opportunity for benefit for those dealing with treatment-resistant depression.
“Unfortunately, over one-third of the more than 300 million people suffering with depression worldwide fail to adequately respond to currently approved treatments, and thus the TRD market is very large and disproportionately dominates the majority of mental health services.”
The trial will enable the Braxia to build the infrastructure for future studies and future clinical care, while also compiling efficacy data and providing the opportunity to evaluate the therapist training programme launched at the end of June 2021.
