More thorough testing of the use of ecstasy and LSD to combat depression is needed, said Sir Patrick Vallance.
The former government chief scientific adviser, who has become a household name during Covid, said “anecdotal” evidence suggests psychedelics can help.
But Sir Patrick, who stepped down from his role last month, said it was ‘really shocking’ the number of patients involved in clinical trials.
Speaking at the Hay Festival, he responded to an audience member who asked if their 107-year-old grandmother, who had suffered from depression for seven years, would benefit from taking psychedelics.
‘I don’t think you should give your grandmother an ecstasy pill,’ replied Sir Patrick. “But I think that’s a really important point: You have to test these things properly.”
Sir Patrick Vallance (pictured) – who has become a household name during Covid, appearing alongside Boris Johnson and Sir Chris Whitty at tense Downing Street briefings – was responding to an audience member who asked if their 107-year-old grandmother years would benefit from taking psychedelics
Dame Kate Bingham (pictured), former chair of the UK vaccine task force, also spoke alongside Sir Patrick at the event. ‘Regulatory, I think it’s going to be hard to figure out: how do you regulate psychedelics so they can be safely given to over-85s or really sick young teenagers?’ she said. However, she added: ‘I think this is an area of real excitement”
The mind-altering properties of hallucinogenic and party drugs have been known for centuries. But ecstasy is currently included in Schedule 1 of the Misuse of Drugs Act, along with drugs like LSD. This means that it cannot be legally owned or prescribed and a license from the Home Office is required for use in research
“One of the really shocking things is how many people are participating in clinical trials.”
He told audience members at the literary festival in Wales: ‘We don’t know what we’re doing most of the time, why shouldn’t you get more people into clinical trials and try to find out?’
The mind-altering properties of hallucinogenic and party drugs have been known for centuries.
Yet psychiatrists say the evidence is mounting to show that the same trip-inducing effects of the substances could revolutionize mental health treatment.
Mental health charities and psychiatrists wrote to the government earlier this month calling for a change in legislation for psilocybin, the hallucinogenic compound in magic mushrooms.
Campaigners want it to be used on the NHS and in medical research more easily.
A Home Office license is required for any use in research.
Recreational use would remain illegal, with Britons caught in possession of the class A drug facing a prison sentence of up to seven years.
Ecstasy and LSD are also under strict control.
Sir Patrick told the festival: ‘There is a lot of enthusiasm for psychedelics at the moment. Some of these are quite anecdotal.
“Why don’t we stop being anecdotal and really get this right?”
“Healthcare systems can be much more geared towards asking the questions, testing things right, getting answers as quickly as possible.”
Sir Patrick, who has become a household name during Covid, appearing alongside Boris Johnson and Sir Chris Whitty during tense Downing Street briefings, spoke to a panel alongside Dame Kate Bingham, former chair of the UK’s vaccine task force United.
Dame Kate also told audience members:“There is now solid data showing that different interventions can have effects on depression and mental health.”
She added: “Treatment-resistant depression is an extremely important mental health challenge.
“Regulatory, I think it’s going to be hard to figure out: how do we regulate psychedelics so they can be safely administered to over-85s or really sick young teenagers?”
However, regarding psychedelics, Dame Kate added, “I think this is an area of real excitement.”
The latest data from the NHS shows that antidepressant prescriptions among teenagers increased by a quarter in England in 2020 compared to 2016. The greatest growth was seen between 13-19 year olds, where prescribing rates rose by around a third
Even young adults, who are often leaving home for the first time and starting their careers, have seen an increase in antidepressant prescription rates of about 40%.
The main treatments for anxiety and depression in the UK include talk therapies such as counseling and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).
The drug is also offered. Prescriptions of antidepressants, such as Prozac, Zispin, Molipaxin and Cipramil, have more than doubled in the past decade.
NHS data shows that around 22 million antidepressants were prescribed between October and December 2022, for around 6.6 million patients.
Researchers say the development of new treatment options in recent decades has been disappointing.
Psilocybin has been touted as a promising therapy. A synthetic version could even be launched on the NHS to treat depression within the next decade, experts believe.
Researchers at the University of Oxford tested psilocybin on more than 200 people with treatment-resistant depression, a severe form that doesn’t improve with currently licensed drugs or therapy.
Volunteers were counseled and given the drug in specialized rooms in a one-time eight-hour session likened to a “daydream.”
Patients given the highest dose of the drug saw the severity of their depression decrease the most over the course of 12 weeks. They were very likely to go into remission.
The researchers are now moving forward with phase three trials, testing its safety and effectiveness on a larger group.
Previous studies have found that the drug can also ease other mental health issues, such as anxiety, anorexia and addiction.
Scientists believe it works by ‘opening up’ the brains of those with mental health issues, making them more flexible and fluid and less rooted in negative thoughts for up to three weeks.
But any drug use, recreational or otherwise, can pose a danger and risk to health.
Using ecstasy — MDMA — can lead to overheating and dehydration, doctors warn. High levels of MDMA in tablets can also trigger potentially fatal side effects, including cardiac arrest caused by a disconnect between the brain, heart and lungs.
The latest official data from the Office for National Statistics shows that MDMA and ecstasy were behind 82 deaths in 2021, ten times the eight recorded in 2010.
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