In today's busy world, stress and depression?have become unwanted companions of our life. And while there are various ways to make our mind feel better, very few actually help us get positive results.
However, the FDA in the United States has fast-tracked a drug that could cure severe depression.
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The drug in play here is psilocybin -- a hallucinogenic substance in magic mushrooms, to treat major depressive disorder (MDD). It is the second time this year that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has designated psilocybin therapy as a "breakthrough therapy" that would accelerate the process of the development of the drug and release. This is usually done by a drug company and only granted when evidence suggests that the drug could result in a drastically impactful outcome.
The trial for this drug is being overlooked by a nonprofit that goes by the name of Usona Institute. The trial includes 80 participants at seven different sites across the U.S. and is working on treating patients with MDD (major depressive disorder) with a single dose of psilocybin.?
The second phase of the trial is expected to commence sometime in early 2021 and after receiving the designated status, it expects to hit the third phase soon enough.
Dr. Charles Raison, the director of clinical and translational research at Usona, said in the statement, "What is truly groundbreaking is FDA's rightful acknowledgement that MDD, not just the much smaller treatment-resistant depression population, represents an unmet medical need and that the available data suggest that psilocybin may offer a substantial clinical improvement over existing therapies."
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Over 17 million people in the US alone are affected by MDD. Apart from Psilocybin, researchers in medical science are finding various innovative ways to cure depression.?
Recently, scientists in the UK have created a headband that gives mild electric shocks in the brain to cure depression. According to the manufacturers of the headset-- Flow Neuroscience -- the device has received necessary medical certification to sell this device in the market.