Reacción a "One dose of the active ingredient in ayahuasca improves depressive symptoms, according to the results of a new phase IIa clinical trial"

Is the study of good quality?

"The study published in Nature Medicine by David Erritzoe and colleagues evaluates the therapeutic potential of DMT (N,N-dimethyltryptamine) in resistant depression and, in general terms, can be considered a good quality study in the early stages of clinical research. It is a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial with rigorous selection and clinical evaluation procedures, which gives it greater methodological robustness than many preliminary studies on psychedelics. In addition, it uses validated clinical measures and temporal follow-up, allowing for the observation of not only immediate effects but also subsequent evolution (3-6 months). However, as with most pioneering studies in this field, it is not yet a large-scale confirmatory trial, so its results should be interpreted as promising but preliminary."

Are there any limitations to consider?

"Among the most important limitations is the small sample size, which reduces statistical power and makes it difficult to generalise the results to the actual clinical population. For example, prior withdrawal from antidepressants (washout) or previous psychedelic experience are variables that could have been negatively influenced by the sample size. In addition, the very nature of psychedelics makes it very difficult to maintain blinding: both participants and therapists may intuit whether the active substance has been administered due to its intense subjective effects, introducing possible expectation biases. It should also be considered that participants were carefully selected (no psychosis, problematic substance use or other relevant conditions), which limits extrapolation to more complex patients. The predominance of men (around 70%) and a rather young average age also reduce the representativeness of the sample. Another factor to consider is the short follow-up period, which makes it impossible to determine with certainty the persistence of long-term benefits or whether repeated administrations would be necessary to maintain the therapeutic effect. Finally, as this is DMT-assisted therapy and not purely DMT administration, it cannot be determined to what extent the observed effects are due exclusively to the substance or to the therapeutic intervention as a whole."

What are the implications and how does it fit in with existing evidence?

"In terms of its implications, the study fits coherently with the growing evidence on classic psychedelics such as psilocybin or LSD, which have shown rapid and clinically significant antidepressant effects in treatment-resistant depression. The main novelty is that DMT has an extremely short time profile, with intense but short-lived effects, opening up the possibility of much more time- and resource-efficient therapeutic interventions. This could transform the clinical viability of psychedelic therapy, as a psilocybin session can last between six and eight hours, while intravenous DMT produces a profound altered state that lasts for minutes. However, it is still unclear whether such a brief experience can generate psychological changes as lasting as those observed with other psychedelics."

What advantages does DMT have over other psychedelics?

"It is precisely this extremely short duration of the experience (20-30 minutes) that constitutes one of the main potential advantages of DMT over other compounds. It allows for therapeutic sessions that are just as safe and controlled, but less demanding for the patient and the clinical team and more resource-efficient, making it attractive for possible implementation in the healthcare system. In addition, its intravenous administration allows for real-time adjustment of intensity, which could improve tolerability and reduce the risk of overwhelming experiences. On the other hand, this same brevity can be controversial, as some therapeutic models argue that deep psychological processing requires a prolonged period of subjective experience."

What is the current state of research on DMT for psychological treatment?

"Regarding the current state of research, DMT is still in the early stages of clinical development for mental disorders. There are phase II trials—such as this study—that evaluate preliminary efficacy and safety in relatively small samples, but large-scale phase III trials are not yet available to support regulatory approval. This places it behind psilocybin, which already has advanced phase III programmes for major depression. Consequently, although the results are very promising and point to a potentially more accessible new therapeutic paradigm, DMT remains, for the time being, an experimental treatment that requires replication, larger samples, and long-term follow-up before it can be incorporated into routine clinical practice.

In conclusion, the study results invite cautious but genuine optimism. The research led by David Erritzoe shows that it is possible to achieve rapid and significant clinical improvements in people with resistant depression through a brief, controlled, and well-tolerated intervention. This suggests that DMT-assisted therapy could become a particularly valuable option for patients who do not respond to conventional treatments, a group for which there are currently few effective alternatives. Furthermore, the fact that therapeutic effects can be triggered with very short exposure opens the door to treatment models that are more accessible, scalable, and compatible with real-world healthcare systems.

If future research confirms these findings in larger samples and with longer follow-up, DMT could represent a paradigm shift in psychiatry and psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy: a fast-acting, potentially repeatable treatment with a much lower logistical burden than other substances in the same group. In this sense, far from being a mere pharmacological curiosity, DMT could be a strong candidate for expanding the therapeutic arsenal against severe depression, offering a potential treatment for one of the most debilitating and difficult-to-treat conditions."