Canadian Firm Launches Trial for Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy to Treat SUD

Numinus Wellness, a mental health and wellness company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, announced plans to conduct a compassionate access clinical trial for psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of substance use disorders.

The project, in which the company will implement, test and refine protocols for using psilocybin-assisted therapy to treat a range of SUDs, will be conducted in collaboration with Syreon Corp., a research firm with experience conducting clinical trials.

Compassionate access clinical trials allow patients not eligible to enroll in other clinical trials to have access to drugs not available on the market. Because psilocybin is illegal in Canada, the trial “will begin to address the hurdle of public accessibility, while allowing us to evaluate service delivery models and study the impacts of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy as an adjunct to standard of care treatments for substance use disorders,” Numinus chief medical officer Evan Wood, MD, PhD, said in a news release.

The study will involve 30 participants who will take part in a motivational enhancement psychedelic psychotherapy intervention with psilocybin. The project is “the first in a series of planned projects and partnerships aimed at expanding access to MDMA for treatment of PTSD and psilocybin for treatment of substance use disorders,” the company said in the release.

Reference:

Numinus announces compassionate access trial of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for substance use disorders. News Release. Numinus Wellness Inc; November 18, 2020.