The UK's First Publicly Funded Psilocybin Trial Reported Results, and They Held at Two Timepoints
PsiDeR, led by Professor James Rucker at King's College London and delivered through South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, is the UK's first publicly funded randomized trial of psilocybin therapy — funded by the NIHR, 60 patients with treatment-resistant depression, a single 25mg dose against a true placebo, with psychological support given to both arms. Published in Nature Medicine: 43% of the psilocybin group met response criteria at 3 weeks versus 3% on placebo, with 40% in remission, and both figures held at 6 weeks. The other detail worth noting: it was delivered in community NHS settings rather than a specialist research unit, which is as much a feasibility result as an efficacy one for a public health system weighing whether this could ever work outside a trial.
Read at King's College London / Nature Medicine