Overview
- A Phase IIa randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial at Imperial College London enrolled 34 adults with moderate-to-severe major depressive disorder.
- Participants receiving an intravenous DMT infusion with psychotherapeutic support showed significant improvement within a week versus placebo, including an average seven-point greater drop on a standard depression scale at two weeks.
- Group-level benefits persisted through three months, some participants remained in remission at six months, and a second dose conferred no clear added benefit.
- The treatment was generally well tolerated, with mild-to-moderate short-lived effects such as nausea, transient anxiety, and infusion-site pain, plus brief rises in heart rate and blood pressure, and no serious adverse events reported.
- Researchers caution that the small sample and potential unblinding limit certainty, calling for larger, longer, comparative studies as the findings, published in Nature Medicine, face a cautious regulatory climate for psychedelics.