A powerful psychedelic compound known as DMT shows promise in reducing symptoms of depression. Conducted with healthy volunteers, a recent study in Scientific Reports revealed significant improvements in depression symptoms following DMT administration, along with an intriguing link between the intensity of the psychedelic experience and psychological benefits.
What is DMT and Why Investigate Its Effects?
DMT, or N,N-Dimethyltryptamine, is a naturally occurring substance found in various plants and animals, and it is known for its potent psychedelic effects. When ingested or inhaled, DMT produces intense visual and auditory hallucinations, often described as otherworldly or spiritual experiences. Researchers have turned their attention to DMT due to its rapid onset and short duration of effects, making it a unique candidate for therapeutic use.
Unlike other classic psychedelics such as LSD or psilocybin, which can induce prolonged psychedelic experiences, DMT’s effects are brief yet profound, offering a potentially more manageable and flexible therapeutic option.
The motivation behind the study stemmed from a growing body of evidence suggesting that psychedelics can significantly impact mental health, particularly in treating depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders. With DMT’s unique properties and the need for innovative mental health treatments, researchers aimed to explore its therapeutic potential and understand its effects on psychological well-being.
“I have been doing research with the psychedelic compound DMT for quite some years now, and we were wondering whether DMT has the same therapeutic possibilities as psilocybin and LSD. So we set out to start a preliminary investigation into this by measuring scores of depression, anxiety and wellbeing before and after administration of DMT and placebo to healthy volunteers participating in our studies,” explained study author Chris Timmermann, the head of DMT Research Group at the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London.
How Was the Study Conducted?
The researchers utilized data from two separate but complementary studies, involving a total of 30 healthy volunteers who had previous experience with psychedelics. This prior experience was a crucial inclusion criterion, aimed at ensuring participants’ psychological safety and familiarity with altered states of consciousness. Participants underwent rigorous screening, including physical tests, psychiatric interviews, and medical examinations, to rule out any potential risk factors.
The study was structured around a placebo-controlled trial and a prospective sample analysis. In the placebo-controlled part, 13 participants received DMT and a placebo in a fixed order, allowing the researchers to observe changes attributable to DMT by comparing outcomes after placebo and DMT sessions, which were spaced a week apart. The doses of DMT varied among participants, and its effects were measured against baseline and post-placebo states, focusing on mental health outcomes such as depression and anxiety symptoms.
In the prospective sample, 25 participants underwent a more complex protocol that included EEG and fMRI recordings to capture the neurological effects of DMT. This part of the study used a pseudo-balanced order for DMT and placebo administration across four dosing sessions on two separate days, with a two-week gap between sessions. This design aimed to control for any potential order effects and to provide a comprehensive view of DMT’s impact on psychological well-being.
Key Findings: DMT’s Impact on Mental Health
The researchers found significant reductions in symptoms of depression following DMT administration in both study parts, highlighting DMT’s potential as a rapid-acting agent with therapeutic effects on mood.
Interestingly, the study also revealed a significant association between the intensity of DMT-induced ‘Oceanic Boundlessness’ — which is characterized by a feeling of oneness with the world and a sense of awe — and improvements in mental health outcomes. This suggests that the qualitative aspects of the psychedelic experience might play a crucial role in its therapeutic potential.
“In a similar way to psilocybin and LSD, DMT was able to lower scores of depression symptoms in healthy volunteers,” Timmermann told PsyPost. “Furthermore, we found that the scores of ‘peak’ experiences induced by DMT were correlated with reductions in symptoms of depression and anxiety. This means that DMT may have therapeutic potential and that the same experiential mechanism (the trip) is at play as with other psychedelics.”
In addition, a significant reduction in neuroticism was observed in the placebo-controlled trial, suggesting that DMT could have a lasting impact on personality traits associated with mental health challenges.
However, the results for anxiety and other psychological factors were less definitive. While reductions in trait anxiety were noted, they did not reach statistical significance, suggesting a potential but not conclusively proven anxiolytic effect. Similarly, increases in nature-relatedness and gratitude were detected but did not remain significant after adjusting for multiple comparisons, indicating that further research is needed to understand these effects fully. No significant changes were observed for wellbeing, optimism, or meaning in life.
“We didn’t find any improvements in wellbeing in this healthy population after DMT compared to placebo,” Timmermann said. “This has to do with so-called ‘ceiling effects,’ when participants display already high scores of wellbeing before they are administered with DMT, so there is little room to observe a change.”
Limitations and Future Directions
Despite these promising results, the study’s authors caution against overinterpretation. The variability in DMT dosages, the methodological differences between the study’s two parts, and the exclusive focus on healthy volunteers with previous psychedelic experience may limit the generalizability of the findings. Nevertheless, the findings provide important groundwork for future research. Looking ahead, the researchers advocate for further studies to explore DMT’s therapeutic potential in clinical populations, including those with diagnosed mental health conditions.
The long-term goal of the research is “to understand to what extent we can use DMT safely for therapeutic purposes,” Timmermann explained. “Many outstanding questions remain here but the most important pertains how DMT is delivered. We know now that DMT can be administered in a flexible way, as shown in our previous study, therefore we need to understand the right way in which to best administer the compound.”
The study, “Effects of DMT on mental health outcomes in healthy volunteers,” was authored by Christopher Timmermann, Richard J. Zeifman, David Erritzoe, David J. Nutt, and Robin L. Carhart-Harris.
