Ayahuasca-derived treatment shows lasting antidepressant effects in Imperial-led clinical trial
This Week In Science
Ayahuasca is a psychoactive decoction that has long been used by Indigenous cultures in the Amazon and Orinoco basins as a traditional medicine. Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is one of the key hallucinogens in ayahuasca: a Nature Medicine article published this February 16th shows its promising feasibility as a depression treatment drug in an Imperial-led phase IIa randomised clinical trial.
The study, led by Dr David Erritzoe from Imperial’s Department of Brain Sciences, is one of the few to explore DMT in a placebo-controlled setting and to investigate major depressive disorder (MDD), whose clinical evidence remains lacking. Each of the 34 participants, all with MDD and a history of failed treatments, received a small dose of DMT/placebo, with their symptoms measured using the known MADRS depression scoring test. Positively, after two weeks the DMT group showed a significantly better score, with antidepressant effects present even six months later in some participants.
The study recognises that its main limitations are the small pool of patients and the lack of ethnic diversity or patients with histories of serious suicide attempts. Though very promising, DMT as part of MDD therapy still has a long way to go, with longer and larger trials needed to confirm its efficiency and safety.
