Two later-stage trials investigating LSD for treating anxiety are due to conclude in 2026, which could lead to the drug being approved for the common mental health condition
are set to conclude in 2026. Scientists are feeling positive after the drug’s success in an earlier-stage trial, which could mean the treatment will be available in the US as early as 2027. Generalised anxiety disorder is a common condition where people feel very anxious about lots of different things.
It is typically treated with antidepressants and talking therapies, butlike psilocybin and MDMA are already used to treat particularly severe cases of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder in some countries, such as Australia and Switzerland. LSD is increasingly being explored as a mentalNow, two later-stage trials are building on these results, with findings expected in 2026. Both are made up of about 200 people with moderate to severe anxiety, who will take either LSD as tablets that collectively add up to a 100-microgram dose or placebo pills. Their anxiety levels will be tracked for up to three months after the dosing day.Your science-backed guide to the easy habits that will help you sleep well, stress less, eat smarter and age better.Then, in a second 10-month phase of the study, all the participants – including those who were initially on placebo pills – will be offered LSD whenever they self-report their anxiety reaching a certain threshold on a standard scale. This will help determine how long effects last from a single dose, saysat biotech company MindMed in New York, who was involved in the 2025 trial and both of the upcoming ones. The key difference between the two trials is that the second also has a third group of participants on a 50-microgram dose of LSD. The 2025 trial demonstrated that this dose has mind-altering effects, such as hallucinations, but doesn’t reduce anxiety beyond the placebo effect. Including this group should help address a major limitation of most psychedelic trials: that participants can often tell whether they have taken the drug. Those in the third group may work out that they have taken LSD, but won’t know if it was at the dose needed to reduce anxiety, helping disentangle the placebo effect, saysIf they both produce positive results, the Food and Drug Administration could approve LSD for treating anxiety in the US as early as 2027, paving the way for potential approval in Europe and beyond, says Karlin. “If the next trials do anything close to the previous one , then it should be enough for the FDA,” saysWhat anxiety actually is has puzzled scientists for decades. Now we are starting to figure out how it may arise from miscommunication between the body and the brain Typically, a 3- to 5-point difference on the anxiety scale used by the team between the placebo and psychedelic groups is considered enough to have a meaningful impact on people’s lives, says Nayak. As the 2025 trial showed a roughly 5-point difference, the next ones stand a good chance of hitting this threshold, although any benefits will have to be weighed up against how long they last and any side effects, he says. For instance, if the treatment causes transient psychological distress, the FDA may deem that a tolerable side effect, but it probably wouldn’t for longer-term distress, says Nayak. The latter wasn’t seen in the 2025 trial, however. But even if the approach wins approval, it will probably take several years before LSD becomes widely accessible for anxiety, says Nayak, and even then, it will probably only be used after standard therapies have failed. This is mainly due to practical difficulties, such as the need for clinicians to monitor people for several hours while they are having a psychedelic trip, he says.
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