DMT-SSRI combination shows potential for depression

Although this report is just from a small phase Ib study, it adds to the emerging picture suggesting classic psychedelics may often work fine alongside SSRI antidepressants and in this case may even act synergistically. It's a small study, hasn't been peer-reviewed, and the comments are from company employees, but they are still interesting: “Our primary goal in conducting this Phase Ib study was to understand if SPL026 (DMT) could be safely administered in conjunction with SSRIs to assess whether patients would need to be withdrawn from their SSRI medication in future trials. While we were very pleased that the study demonstrated that patients may not need to be withdrawn, we were not expecting to see such a marked difference in efficacy when administering SPL026 in combination with SSRIs compared to SPL026 alone,” Dr Carol Routledge, Chief Medical and Scientific Officer of Small Pharma commented. “The potentially enhanced efficacy effect of a DMT-based treatment when administered with SSRIs could lead to greater therapeutic benefit for [major depressive disorder (MDD)] patients” “The potentially enhanced efficacy effect of a DMT-based treatment when administered with SSRIs could lead to greater therapeutic benefit for patients, and a compelling argument for positioning it earlier in the treatment pathway,” Dr Routledge added. “The marked antidepressant effect seen in the SSRI patient cohort indicates the potential for a combination treatment,” George Tziras, Chief Executive Officer of Small Pharma acknowledged. So these are likely to be thoroughly 'biased' comments, but they're intriguing nonetheless!

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