Standard treatments sometimes fail to treat people with mental illnesses. Daniel Carcillo, CEO of Wesana Health, is a living example of this issue. Former National Hockey League player says he was about to commit suicide following a head injury he suffered as a professional athlete.
“Nothing worked,” Carcillo said at Tuesday’s CNBC Healthy Returns summit. “I started making plans to weigh down my family and kill myself. I thought I had tried everything.”
Carcillo then discovered various alternative mushroom-based medical treatments beneficial for inflammation and well-being, such as Lion’s Mane, Turkey Tail, and psilocybin – the compound of “magic” mushrooms. After a psychedelic trip, he woke up feeling normal. Within two weeks, his symptoms were “practically gone.”
Psilocybin has incredible medicinal potential.
Psilocybin is known for its medicinal potential in treating depression, PTSD, and other mental disorders. As more clinical data comes in, a recent wave of public offerings has raised billions of dollars for the field.
His penchant for negative self-talk turned into positive self-talk – “Many incredibly destructive thought patterns were gone in two weeks,” he recalls – and today, he no longer suffers from anxiety and depression.
A growing number of clinical research supports the use of psychedelics to treat various mental health issues. Recent publications in the New England Journal of Medicine and Nature Medicine detailed the latest encouraging findings on MDMA and psilocybin as potential breakthroughs in mental health drugs. The data caught the attention of Wall Street and investors, including Kevin O’Leary, co-host of “Shark Tank” and chairman of O’Shares ETFs.
Companies such as Wesana Health, Compass Pathways, MindMeld, and Field Trip Health are investing in a brand new market estimated to raise billions of dollars.
“The potential of psychedelics far exceeds the potential of cannabis,” O’Leary told CNBC Healthy Returns Tuesday.
“What interested me was the scale and size of the markets,” said O’Leary. “Governments have ignored those opportunities since the 1960s,” he said.
Over the past year and a half, the world has seen a significant increase in market acceptance around the use of psychedelic medicine and multiple clinical trials underway. An aspect that led O’Leary to invest in MindMeld and Compass Pathways.
A brand new market full of opportunities.
“It’s an exciting space. How often do you invest in something that has never been done?” O’Leary said.
Dr. Sharmin Ghaznavi, the Director of the Center for the Neuroscience of Psychedelics, has been at the forefront of the damaging effects of mental illness on individuals.
“For far too many patients, current treatments are inadequate or not helping at all, and we owe it to these patients to explore the promise of these compounds,” Ghaznavi said. “We need rigorous research in the years to come to optimize treatment delivery, maximize benefit and minimize harm,” she added.
Wesana Health expects to file for FDA clearance and approval in Canada in the fourth quarter.
