Magic mushrooms to improve mental health are coming to NJ

The medical community is abuzz about psilocybin, the naturally occurring psychedelic compound produced by more than 200 species of fungi, including mushrooms.

Yes, that’s right —magic mushrooms are now being embraced by the psychiatric community.

Hackensack Meridian Health is teaming up with Compass Pathways, a London biotech company with offices in NYC and SF. And they are really onto something.

Diving into the “trippy” world of psilocybin to tackle mental health issues, especially the stubborn ones like depression.

Compass Pathways is the brainchild of a medicine called COMP360, a new fancy synthetic psilocybin.

The U.S. FDA calls it a Breakthrough Therapy, and the UK gives it a thumbs up for treating depression, according to a press release from the company. Imagine mixing this magic potion with some psychological support – that's the plan.

The Compass-HMH tag team is all about making mental health treatment better. More modern and more comprehensive.

They want to understand the nitty-gritty of helping people with depression in the real world.

And there's more. They're diving deep into a phase 3 clinical program with COMP360 for treating hard-to-crack treatment-resistant depression.

The results from phase 2b were hugely successful– a big improvement in depressive symptoms with just a small COMP360 dose.

But wait, there's more psychedelia on the horizon. Compass is eyeing COMP360 for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anorexia nervosa in their phase 2 clinical trials.

As this wild journey unfolds, keep an eye out. The medical world might just stumble upon a mental health breakthrough that's way more exciting than your average prescription. Stay groovy, kids.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Judi Franco only.

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