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New NHS partnership to accelerate psychedelic research for mental health

The partnership will launch The Centre for Mental Health Research and Innovation in the UK, initially focusing on psilocybin therapy.

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Leading UK psychedelics company Compass Pathways is entering into a pioneering collaboration with King’s College London and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust to accelerate psychedelic research and develop new models of care for mental health in the UK.

The Centre for Mental Health Research and Innovation will accelerate research of emerging psychedelic therapies. It will initially focus on Compass Pathways’ psilocybin therapy, and the centre will provide access to the therapy to an estimated 650 to 700 patients over a five-year term.

To do this, Compass is partnering with the largest mental health trust in the NHS – the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) – as well as the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London. The partnership will be providing patient access to cutting edge research studies in multiple areas of high unmet need in mental health.

In July 2021, the UK Government set out the country’s Life Sciences Vision – aiming to take a new approach to mental health care. The vision aims to address the significant unmet need for innovative new mental health treatments and to gain a better understanding of mental health to develop new therapies.

See also  NHS Trust enters MOU to increase psychedelic-assisted therapy in UK

Despite being an area of focus for policymakers for years, the prevalence of mental ill health is increasing in the UK. On top of this, the problem has been compounded by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

According to statistics in the House of Commons Library, from July 2019 to March 2020, 10 per cent of the population were effected by mental ill health, increasing to 19 per cent by June 2020 and 21 per cent by January to March 2021.

Chairman, CEO and co-founder of Compass Pathways, George Goldsmith, commented: “This partnership will develop new therapies for patients in areas of significant unmet need, such as treatment-resistant depression, PTSD and anorexia nervosa, and help those who currently have few effective treatment options.

“It’s an exciting partnership because it brings together teams representing the NHS, research, and industry for the first time in creating a mental health research and innovation centre. The fact that this is also a first for psychedelic research is notable; this partnership will provide patient access to cutting edge research and help the UK to develop better mental health care models.”

He also stated: “In 2021, the UK Government included mental health care as a core pillar of its Life Sciences Vision – a signal of how critical an issue this is becoming. 

“We are grateful to be able to play a part in this, and to be working with SLaM and the IoPPN, UK leaders in patient care and research in mental health. The centre will accelerate the integration of innovative psychedelic therapies into the NHS following regulatory approval and reimbursement. 

“It is a key part of our strategy to work with health systems to develop innovative evidence-based therapies, and ensure they reach those who might benefit from them as quickly as possible.”

Professor Allan Young, head of Academic Psychiatry at King’s IoPPN, commented: “This new centre is all about putting patients first. 

“The collaboration with Compass Pathways will focus on developing new and effective therapies, as well as considering the patient experience in the real world. We hope it will pave the way for how research and innovations partnerships are developed in the future.”

See also  Findings give new insight into how psychedelics help mental health

The centre will be purpose-built for late-stage clinical trials and will be managed by leading clinical investigators with extensive experience in conducting psychedelic clinical trials.

The new partnership will support therapist training and certification, evaluate real-world evidence, and prototype digital technologies to enable personalised, predictive and preventative care models.

Alongside its focus on Compass Pathway’s COMP360 psilocybin therapy and supportive technologies, the research will also cover other novel therapeutic approaches being researched and developed by the company in areas of high unmet need. These include treatment-resistant depression (TRD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anorexia nervosa.

Compass says its ambition is for the centre to be a beacon of innovative mental health care models, and help inspire and accelerate the development of such public-private partnerships among industry sponsors, academic investigators and the NHS.

The centre will initially be located at Maudsley Hospital, London, while state-of-the-art facilities are built within a 200 acre woodland at Bethlem Royal Hospital, London. 

Chief Executive of South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, David Bradley, stated: “We are seeing a rapid growth in the number of people with mental health care needs, in South London and across the UK. 

“We are proud to continue our legacy of innovation and research by partnering with Compass Pathways to directly translate research into healthcare treatment and significantly improve care in our communities.”

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Psilocybin analogue shows positive results in Phase 2 depression study

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Psilocybin analogue shows positive results in Phase 2 depression study

Cybin has announced positive Phase 2 topline safety and efficacy data for its proprietary deuterated psilocybin analogue – CYB003 – for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD).

Results from Cybin’s study have shown that 79% of patients were in remission from depression at six weeks after receiving two doses of CYB003.

CYB003 demonstrated a large improvement in symptoms after one dose and a total of 79% of patients were responsive to the treatment. The compound also demonstrated an excellent safety profile in doses tested, with all reported adverse events mild to moderate and self–limiting.

Additionally, Cybin has stated that the magnitude of improvement was superior compared to approved antidepressants and recently reported data with other psychedelics, stating that the effects translate into an unprecedented effect size.

The company has said that the results compare favorably to pooled data from 232 industry studies of current standard-of-care antidepressants, SSRIs, submitted to the FDA.

The announcement follows Phase 2 interim results in early November 2023, which demonstrated that CYB003 saw a “rapid, robust and statistically significant reduction in symptoms of depression three weeks following a single 12mg dose compared to placebo”.

Cybin CEO, Doug Drysdale, stated: “We are delighted to share that CYB003 achieved the primary efficacy endpoint in this study and showed rapid and statistically significant improvements in depression symptoms after a single dose, with a clear incremental benefit of a second dose, resulting in four out of five patients in remission from their depression at six weeks.

“This is an impressive finding and follows on from the unprecedented interim results we announced earlier this month.”

Drysdale emphasised that the strength of the data will support CYB003 into Phase 3 of the study.

Cybin CMO, Amir Inamdar, added: “The significant reduction in depression symptoms observed in our Phase 2 study is highly gratifying.

“At the three-week primary efficacy endpoint, a single 12mg dose of CYB003 showed a rapid, robust, and highly statistically significant improvement in depression symptoms compared to placebo, with a -14.08 point difference in change from baseline in MADRS. 

“This translated into a very large effect size. Similar significant and robust effects were also seen with a single 16mg dose, which resulted in an improvement in symptoms of depression as measured using the MADRS total score by about 13 points versus placebo. 

“These effects were evident on day one with the 16mg dose and were also highly statistically significant. When data from 12mg and 16mg are pooled, these robust effects are maintained. Further, with two doses, response and remission rates in excess of 75% were observed with CYB003 (12mg). 

“With these findings in hand, we are encouraged by the potential of CYB003 to help those with MDD and look forward to progressing to a multinational, multisite Phase 3 study early next year.”

Cybin is planning on submitting topline data to the FDA with an aim to hold a Phase 2 meeting in Q1 of 2024, with further 12-week durability data from Phase 2 CYB003 expected in Q1, and recruitment for the Phase 3 study anticipated to begin by the end of Q1 2024.

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Clerkenwell Health calls for volunteers to support groundbreaking psychedelic research

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Clerkenwell Health calls for volunteers to support groundbreaking psychedelic research

Mental health research provider Clerkenwell Health is calling for volunteers to join its groundbreaking clinical trials that will research whether psychedelics can provide effective treatments for complex mental health conditions.

Clerkenwell is seeking a diverse group of volunteers from across the UK between 18 and 65 years old to take part in the trials if they suffer from a relevant condition. 

The trials, which will be conducted at Clerkenwell Health’s purpose-built facility near Harley Street in London, are being run in partnership with a number of world-leading drug developers to test whether psychedelic drugs – often combined with talking therapy – can offer a new approach to treating a variety of mental health illnesses.

See also  Clerkenwell Health is launching a free UK psychedelic therapist training programme

Clerkenwell Health is seeking volunteers for trials that look to find cures for a range of conditions, including PTSD, depression, alcohol use disorder and anorexia. 

Many of the conditions have few successful treatment options and Clerkenwell’s innovative methods of combining psychedelics with therapy aim to to treat these problems more holistically, providing long-term quality of life for patients.

Chief Scientific Officer at Clerkenwell Health, Dr Henry Fisher, said: “With the current system for treating mental health disorders simply not working, we’re calling for patients to help identify the next wave of treatments. 

“These have the potential to be groundbreaking for the millions of people across the UK who are affected by poor mental health.

“The status quo for mental health treatment has not only resulted in patients experiencing debilitating side-effects, huge waiting lists and high relapse rates, but is costly, complicated and broadly ineffective. 

“By participating in upcoming clinical trials, patients have an opportunity to make a valuable contribution to growing research which will support the development of the next generation treatments for mental health conditions.”

According to MIND, approximately 1 in 4 people in the UK will be affected by a mental health condition each year and with a significant rise in people contacting mental health services in recent years, there has never been a more desperate need to identify new and innovative treatments.

Given the challenges facing the country’s health service and with mental health challenges on the rise, the search for volunteers to test effective treatments has never been more pressing. 

Clerkenwell has stated, in this regard, that it has gone national with its search for volunteers in an effort to deliver medical breakthroughs in mental health akin to the Polio clinical trials in the 20th Century.

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Paper explores extended difficulties following psychedelic trips

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Paper explores extended difficulties following psychedelic trips

A new paper has explored the extended difficulties experienced by some people following psychedelic drug use and discusses psychedelic harm reduction.

While multiple studies have shown that psychedelics can be safe when administered appropriately, some people experience difficulties following their use. These difficulties can last anywhere from a few days to years.

With a rise in clinical research surrounding these compounds, there is a drive to change drug policy and several places have already implemented progressive approaches to accessing these therapies such as decriminalisation or including them on authorised medical access schemes. 

In light of these developments, it is vital to understand the potential risks associated with psychedelic use and what actions can be taken to reduce these risks.

The paper has been published in Plos One and authored by a team of leading psychedelic scientists from the Universities of Exeter, Greenwich and Queen Mary, University College London and Royal Holloway, New York University and the Perception Restoration Foundation.

Extended difficulties following psychedelic use

The team of researchers has gathered data on the context of use, nature and duration of these difficulties and explored risk factors and perceived causes that may contribute to these experiences. 

The most common forms of extended difficulty that the team uncovered include symptoms such as anxiety/fear and existential struggle, as well as social disconnection, depersonalisation and derealisation.

“For approximately one-third of the participants, problems persisted for over a year, and for a sixth, they endured for more than three years,” the authors write.

The findings revealed that the length of time these experiences last following psychedelic use could be predicted by the participants’ knowledge of dose and drug type, and that the experiences were shorter if a participant had taken part in a guided psychedelic experience. 

Additionally, the most common length of time such difficulties lasted was between one and three years. When asked about mental illness onset following the psychedelic experience, 18.8% said they had gone on to be diagnosed with a mental illness, while 76.8% said they had not.

The authors write: “Our findings support the results of Simonsson et al., who found that anxiety was the most common enduring difficulty, based on quantitative questionnaire data and Bouso et al’s study of the Global Ayahuasca Survey, in which ‘feeling nervous, anxious or on edge’ was the second most common adverse mental health effect. Our findings also suggest that a Sense of disconnection from others was within the top five most prevalent themes, as did the studies by Simonsson et al. and Bouso et al. 

“Some extended adverse effects that were quite common in other studies weren’t so common in our data set–for example, feeling a harmful connection to the spirit world was reported by 14% of respondents to the Global Ayahuasca Survey but by less than 4% of our data set, which may suggest some forms of difficulty are particularly associated with certain psychedelic substances and/or their associated cultures.”

Reducing risk factors

The authors suggest a number of actions that could be taken to reduce these risks.

Highlighting that, as anxiety and fear are some of the most commonly reported difficulties, the authors suggest that all legal psychedelic experience providers give guidance on methods for “self-soothing and overcoming bouts of anxiety following the retreat, clinical trial or ceremony.”

Further suggestions include informing participants of potential harms and risks and advising participants that the integration process may take some time, and what practices can be done to help people cope with difficulties. The authors say these practices will be explored in an upcoming paper.

The team writes: “We envisage using the information in this study, and accompanying future papers that focus on social support and forms of coping used by those with enduring difficulties, to provide structured guidance and training to psychedelic retreats, therapists and clinical trial centers about the potential for adverse experiences, what the potential risk factors are and what can be done to help individuals who report such extended difficulties.”

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