LSD for anxiety and depression: Worth the trip?

This article in Medscape Psychiatry comments: “A year after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) opened the door to clinical use of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), US-based MindMed has launched phase 3 trials in the United States and Europe of MM120 (lysergide d-tartrate) for the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and major depressive disorder (MDD).  The trials are testing the company’s 100-mcg orally disintegrating tablet MM120, which received FDA Breakthrough Therapy based on results from a phase 2B trial in GAD. In that study, one dose of the drug was associated with rates of 65% for clinical response and 48% for clinical remission at 12 weeks.  “It’s unprecedented in psychiatry,” investigator Daniel R. Karlin, MD, psychiatrist and chief medical officer of MindMed, said during a presentation at the European Psychiatric Association Congress (EPA) 2025. Compared with traditional psychopharmacologic therapy, the drug’s effect can be measured as early as 1 day after treatment, he added.  Successful phase 3 results could put MM120 in line to become the first FDA-approved psychedelic drug. What does the research show and what hurdles must the drug clear to make it to market?”

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