Norrsken Foundation has today announced the launch of Norrsken Mind: Psychedelic Science Initiative, a foundation focused on the treatment of mental health through psychedelic substances. Norrsken Mind has raised over €3 million and says that more capital is yet to come.
A valid business
If the question of whether or not psychedelics in the treatment of mental health is a viable business model one need only look to last month’s $285 million private placement raise accomplished by London-based Compass Pathways, or peer into the work Clerkenwell Health is doing as it urges the NHS to 'embrace' psychedelics.
Furthermore, 2019 data (read: pre-pandemic) from the WHO reveals that 13 percent of the world’s population is suffering from any given form of mental disorder and that the sleep-at-the-office experiment saw a 28 percent increase in major depressive issues and a 26 percent increase in anxiety issues.
When it comes to depression, looking back some 12 years, the WHO reported that 30 percent of patients were not being treated effectively for their condition with mainstream antidepressants. Such medications include Prozac (fluoxetine), Celexa (citalopram), and Zoloft (sertraline).
Psychedelics as medicine
Rising to the challenge presented therein is the resurging field of psychedelic substances to treat mental disorders. The most well-known of these substances include Psilocybin (4-Phosphoryloxy-N,N-Dimethyltryptamine), LSD (D-Lysergic Acid Diethylamide), MDMA (3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine), Ketamine (2-(2-chlorophenyl)-2-(methylamino)-cyclohexanone) , and Peyote (Mescaline).
In conjunction with the launch, Norrsken Mind today announces two grants amounting to close to €587,000 to studies at Karolinska Institutet, and Umeå University.
Norrsken Mind managing director Emma Christersson shares:
“There is an ever-growing awareness of the importance of investing in mental health. While there are several important mental health treatments today, they are in many cases insufficient, and we need to explore new ways forward. Research on psychedelic-assisted treatments is one of the most promising lines of research in the field of psychiatry right now. There are plenty of interested researchers in Sweden and across Europe. With the right funding and conditions in place, we can help them investigate more effective treatment options through rigorous research.”
Lead image: Photo by Joice Kelly
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