Lab Testing Non-Psychedelic LSD-Based Drug To Treat Depression

American scientists have reportedly made progress in the development of a non-psychoactive variant of drugs like LSD and mushrooms, which are strong and potent in their normal form but also have shown signs of improving anxiety and depression in some users.

One of the authors of the study, Dr. Bryan Roth of the UNC Chapel Hill School of Medicine, told NPR the drugs “had no psychedelic drug-like actions at all,” while returning similarly positive effects on depression as typical psychedelics do.

Finding this wasn’t the original aim of the study. Roth explained that they were examining a specific molecular structure that they had seen in several types of drugs including psilocybin (mushrooms), LSD, and drugs treating cancer and migraines.

Roth said that after screening their library of these overlapping molecules, they isolated two that were “extremely effective” at calming the symptoms of depression. In their trials studying mice, they determined that the creatures would give up less easily in uncomfortable or strange situations when exposed to the molecules beforehand.

There will still be a significant wait before this is anywhere near available for purchase, adjustments need to be made before human trials are attempted.