Solving our society’s growing incidence of mental and behavioral health conditions requires an entirely new approach and a new class of therapeutics.
Experiential therapies have a high enough dose of a psychedelic (e.g., LSD, psilocybin) to produce a hallucinogenic effect and are administered under the supervision and guidance of a medical professional.
Every component of a session is intentionally designed to provide the ideal set and setting in which patients can receive the most effective & transformative healing experience possible.
With the guidance of a professional, experiential therapies catalyze patients’ mental health journeys by enabling patients to open themselves up to novel and meaningful emotions, thoughts, and experiences for a truly deeper healing.
In the psychedelics-assisted therapy paradigms, the psychedelic molecules don’t by themselves address the underlying biological, psychological or social causes of the mental illness. What psychedelic medicine allows us to do is to help patients open their eyes, in a safe and professional environment, on their wounds and deep conflicts, process them, and create new meanings - between them and their wounds, between them and the world, between their ego and their soul - which in turn helps alleviate the pain and the suffering, and with a subsequent revision of health."
Increase in benzodiazepine overdose deaths since 19991
Globally suffer from anxiety2
Global anxiety medication annual sales3
Anxiety is growing as social media usage skyrockets. Since widespread social media adoption in 2009, there has been a 189%4 increase in self-harm.
Multi-factorial causes and symptoms require multidimensional solutions. Traditional mental health care has failed to evolve meaningfully in the past 30 years. Anxiety will not be solved with just a pill a day.
COVID-19 is causing job loss, isolation, and overall fear. Anxiety medications have increased 34.1%5 month-over-month in the first few months of COVID-19.
Current options address solely the symptoms– not the underlying disease. Many patients are left feeling stuck in trial-and-error medication cycles, often risking negative side effects and addictive properties.
We put power back in the hands of the two people on the front lines of addressing with a mental health issue — a patient and their therapist. Therapists are a vital piece of the overall support system a patient needs to overcome mental and behavioral health conditions. The importance of the human element cannot be understated.
A Catalyst for Change
Project Lucy involves a hallucinogenic dosing of LSD to treat anxiety, administered by a therapist. LSD increases brain communication and supports talk therapy by expanding the mind and minimizing inhibitions. MindMed is currently preparing to initiate our Phase 2b human efficacy trial for experiential doses of LSD.
MindMed has acquired the rights to an ongoing Phase 2 Anxiety clinical trial from University Hospital Basel’s Liechti Lab, being led by Dr. Peter Gasser and Dr. Matthias Liechti.
MindMed is committed to providing the entire toolset, from breakthrough medicines and technologies to compassionate therapy— for patients and therapists that accounts for the entire, complex patient journey.
Effective mental healthcare requires a coordinated effort among therapists, drug developers, and patients. Shared data drive insights and better treatments, so we’re working to build a community through partnerships and technology R&D. We hold ourselves and our partners to the highest standards of safety, efficacy and compassion so that we can progress the industry — and patient outcomes — faster.
In preparation for future deployment of these medicines, it is imperative to get psychedelic substances in front of clinical researchers and give them the resources they need to help clarify the path forward. Learn more about the Psychedelic Medicine Research Training Program that MindMed is funding at NYU Langone Health, one of the nation’s premier academic medical centers.
