Hundreds of Europeans with depression will soon have the chance to turn on, tune in and drop out of existing drug treatments, in the largest clinical trial ever launched to assess the medicinal effects of a psychoactive substance.
A British start-up is preparing a groundbreaking experiment to start early next year in eight European countries for 400 patients with treatment-resistant depression. The aim is to test whether psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, can help improve their condition over three months.
The trial — still subject to final approval from regulators — marks the boldest attempt yet to relaunch scientific study of the psychedelic substance in more than half a century. There was a clampdown on psychoactive drugs from the 1960s after they were popularised for recreational use by counter-cultural figures such as Alexander Shulgin and Timothy Leary, the psychologist who called for people to “turn on, tune in, drop out”.