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Drug Discovery and Development

Psilocybin therapy shows promise for treating anorexia and depression in small studies

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Compass PathwaysCompass Pathways (Nasdaq:CMPS) announced positive data from two early studies focused on using psilocybin therapy for anorexia nervosa and severe treatment-resistant depression.

The London-based company presented the results at the Society of Biological Psychiatry Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

In the anorexia nervosa study, 10 patients received a single 25 mg of the company’s COMP360 synthetic formulation of psilocybin. Almost one-third (30%) of the patients had clinically significant reductions in eating disorder psychopathology after one month. That figure rose to 40% at three months.

A total of 90% of study volunteers reported that the clinical trial was meaningful and therapeutic.

Participants reported no serious adverse events.

Dr. Walter Kaye at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine oversaw the study.

The second treatment recruited 12 individuals with severe treatment-resistant depression who had not responded to at least five antidepressants. A total of 58.3% (n=7) of the participants maintained response criteria for the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) at 12 weeks after COMP360 psilocybin administration.

Compass is now running a Phase 2b study of psilocybin in 22 sites based in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

Filed Under: Psychiatric/psychotropic drugs
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About The Author

Brian Buntz

As the pharma and biotech editor at WTWH Media, Brian has almost two decades of experience in B2B media, with a focus on healthcare and technology. While he has long maintained a keen interest in AI, more recently Brian has made making data analysis a central focus, and is exploring tools ranging from NLP and clustering to predictive analytics.

Throughout his 18-year tenure, Brian has covered an array of life science topics, including clinical trials, medical devices, and drug discovery and development. Prior to WTWH, he held the title of content director at Informa, where he focused on topics such as connected devices, cybersecurity, AI and Industry 4.0. A dedicated decade at UBM saw Brian providing in-depth coverage of the medical device sector. Engage with Brian on LinkedIn or drop him an email at bbuntz@wtwhmedia.com.

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