There is no more enigmatic drug than N,N-Dimethyltryptamine, better known as DMT.
The hallucinogen can create intense and deep visions similar to near-death experiences. It can bring on profound spiritual awakenings, and can even result in "ego death" that shreds your sense of space, time, and self.
Sometimes you see machines.
While DMT has attracted a community of loyal devotees who turn to it for spiritual enlightenment and fun trips, now it is starting to get the attention of a vastly different group: pharmaceutical investors. Scientists are learning more about the potential for treating mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder, with the mind bending substances.
While many pharmaceutical companies are researching the health benefits of party drugs, a few are now exploring DMT as well. Some suggest that the quirks that trippers frequently encounter on DMT could play a unique role in the therapeutic process.
The chief medical and scientific officer at Small Pharma said there was a significant unmet medical need. There are treatments for major depression, like SSRIs, but they have side effects and there is a huge underserved population.
Small pharma works to help people with serious depression by combining DMT with regular therapy sessions.
Patients won't have to travel to the desert or the Amazon to take ayahuasca from a shaman. The patients will be taken to a comfortable room with low lighting and salt lamps to relax in. Initial therapy is also done to prepare for the experience.
They are given an IV dose of DMT and the therapist is with them for about 20 to 25 minutes. After the trip, the patient undergoes an integration therapy session where they will answer questions and detail their experiences.
The subject can make sense of the experience they have just gone through. It is important for the therapeutic aspects of the treatment, and we think that is useful and helpful for the patient.
It is still a big question if it will actually work. In September, the company completed phase one clinical trials, in which it dosed volunteers without major depression just to demonstrate that the process is physically safe. It is moving into phase two trials that will give patients with major depressive disorder.
There are some indicators that it could work, and possibly even have a positive impact on patients.
Rick Strassman, an associate professor of Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and author of "DMT: The Spirit Molecule," told Futurism that "DMT can really blow your mind." You can get insights or remember things that you didn't know about, which could be affecting or causing your depression.
For more than 20 years, Strassman has devoted his career to the study of DMT. His book was adapted into a documentary narrated by Joe Rogan. There is at least some evidence that DMT-assisted therapy could be beneficial to those with treatment-resistant depression.
He says that one surprising element of DMT trips that could help those with major depressive disorder are the entities known as "elves," which are beings that many DMT users say they encounter during trips.
They just appear when you are in the DMT world. They can come together from the swirling geometric forms. They can look like anything from aliens, bees, a cactus, a machine, or an African warrior princess.
He says that if you subscribe to the notion that the entities are there to help you, then there is a good chance they will help you with certain psychological issues.
A study published in The Journal of Psychopharmacology in 2020 found that 2,500 people had encountered entities after taking a dose of DMT. The researchers found that the majority of respondents attributed their emotions to the entities.
The participants tended to attribute positive growth-associated labels to entities such as being, guide, spirit, alien, and helpers. Most respondents said that their encounters with the beings were among the most meaningful, spiritual, and psychologically insightful experiences of their lives.
More than half of participants who identified as an unbeliever before the experience no longer do so after they encounter the entities.
The study's findings are in line with the belief of the study's author that since entity contact occurs relatively often and intensely with DMT, it could offer a "unique beneficial feature" to patients. It may be even more powerful when an individual takes these entities and couples them with their own spiritual frameworks.
If you are a Catholic, you might believe that these beings are angels sent by God to help you. Buddhists might think that they are part of an enlightenment experience. The spiritual models can help people deal with beings in a safe and effective way.
The entities are also on the radar of Small pharma. The phenomena is beneficial for the treatment of depression and other internalizing disorders, according to Routledge.
There is evidence that DMT might help treat depression. The drug seems to encourage the growth of new neurons in the brain and the way they establish new networks and connections. The antidepressant effects of DMT may be related to these factors.
The default mode network is what Small Pharma is looking at. When a person daydreams or lets their mind wander, a neural system in their brain becomes engaged, and researchers believe that this leads to negative thoughts.
DMT makes inflexible neural connections more flexible. The brain is stimulated by a number of seroquels in the brain. That can affect the neural connections.
She said it was kind of a reset.
Small pharma plans to conduct an integration therapy.
The therapy following the DMT dosage helps lay down the new connections that are being made in the patient's brain during the psychedelic experience. It helps to move the patient out of the experience into a more positive setting.
Compared to other drugs, DMT is less time consuming and can be had for just 20 to 30 minutes. If you can treat depression in a shorter period of time, that will save you time and money.
The total treatment duration is approximately two hours, even with wrap-around therapy. This is easy to administer and clinically flexible.
She said that research shows that even a short-term experience from DMT should provide at least the same efficacy as psilocybin.
Experts say the risk of DMT causing psychological problems is very low.
There is no evidence that DMT causes psychosis on its own.
If you or your family have a history of mental health problems, DMT can act as atrigger to psychosis. Those with mental health issues have a higher risk of psychosis after using the drug. Your chances of losing your mind are slim to none, according to Strassman.
There are stories out there that could cause people to rethink their treatment. A case study in the year of 2017 showed that a physician was hospitalized after attempting to self-medicate his manic depression with DMT.
He was taking a gram of DMT a day. He was also very depressed. If you use DMT you are at a higher risk of experiencing mania.
If you are dealing with mental health issues already, that remote chance is enough to give you pause. There is a question of how to address those with major depression and a history of psychosis.
The companies behind these potential treatments are fueled by profit, at the end of the day. They will be expected to make money. We have seen the dangers of that problem many times before, and it would be doing so at the request of corporations focused on the bottom line.
We are still in the early stages of the study. Before you can start tripping on the spirit molecule, you need to conduct more research and experiments.
However, if cautious, Strassman is hopeful that the drug's future is as a treatment for depression. He believes that DMT can be a bold way of dealing with the pain and trauma we humans often encounter in the real, non-spirit world.
He said that we need to be kind and compassionate and keep our eyes open.
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