A GROUNDBREAKING STUDY REVEALS A SINGLE LSD DOSE offers instant and sustained relief.
After yielding promising results in a clinical trial, an LSD formulation aimed at treating generalized anxiety disorder has been awarded Breakthrough Therapy status by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
This essay explores the remarkable finding that a single dose of MM120 (lysergide d-tartrate) led to a 48 percent remission rate from generalized anxiety disorder at 12 weeks following the drug’s administration.
“When the light turns green, you go. When the light turns red, you stop. But what do you do when the light turns blue with orange and lavender spots?”
― Shel Silverstein, A Light in the Attic
Anxiety: It’s common
Fortunately, I do not suffer from anxiety. As you will soon learn, the age group with the lowest prevalence of anxiety is 60 or older.
But many do.
Approximately one in five (19 percent) of U.S. adults report experiencing any anxiety disorder in the past year.
The prevalence of any anxiety disorder was higher for females (23 percent) than males (14 percent).
Finally, an estimated 31 percent of U.S. adults experience any anxiety disorder at some point in their lives.
New LSD study
I am going to cut to the chase and give you the takeaway message from a recent study:
A single dose of MM120 (lysergide d-tartrate) led to a 48 percent rate of remission from generalized anxiety disorder at 12 weeks following the drug’s administration.
For those receiving a single dose of MM-120, nearly eight out of 10 (78 percent) of those receiving 100 or 200 µg dose measured as having a clinically significant response to the drug.
Half of the participants who received the 100 µg dose were in clinical remission at week 4, meaning that the patient no longer suffered from clinically significant symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder.
These findings are all rather stunning. Let’s turn to why I am impressed.
Standard treatment for anxiety
To get a sense of the power of LSD for anxiety, we should look at the current standard of care for generalized anxiety disorder.
Here are some of the traditional tools:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy
- Medications (including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, SSRIs, and buspirone). These drugs impact brain neurotransmitter (serotonin) levels. Sedatives (benzodiazepines) are sometimes offered.
But here’s the problem: These medicines need time to work. Moreover, patients may need to use a trial-and-error approach to dosing.
New study details
Let’s get back to the new study.
Researchers enrolled 198 participants, all suffering from generalized anxiety disorder. Twenty clinical sites in the U.S. participated.
Each volunteer entered one of five study arms. All received a single dose of a lysergide-based drug candidate called MM-120 (lysergide d-tartrate) or a placebo.
Here are the doses in the LSD arms:
- Group 1: 25 µg of MM-120
- Group 2: 50 µg of MM-120
- Group 3: 100 µg of MM-120
- Group 4: 200 µg of MM-120
Nobody had additional therapy.
One more quote
“Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life. LSD shows you that there’s another side to the coin, and you can’t remember it when it wears off, but you know it. It reinforced my sense of what was important — creating great things instead of making money, putting things back into the stream of history and human consciousness as much as possible.” ― Steve Jobs.
My take
First, while a single dose of LSD (at the higher doses) led to an 80 percent response rate, we should corroborate the research findings through real-world evidence.
Second, the clinical trial was small and short (four weeks).
Third, some (31 percent) of the placebo group got better.
Fourth, there are potential side effects. Please go here to learn more:
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Finally, MindMed evaluated the effects of MM-120 on study participants 12 weeks after the dose. The results should be available in early 2024.
With all of those caveats,
A single dose of LSD appears to have a powerful and rapid effectiveness for those with generalized anxiety disorder. Many of these individuals are not adequately served by our current approaches.
What say you?
Thank you for reading “Groundbreaking Study Reveals Single LSD Dose Offers Instant and Sustained Anxiety Relief.”
