New Hope For Alcoholics As Psychedelics Prove Impactful In Battle Against Addiction
Awakn Life Sciences Corp. (NEO: AWKN) (OTCMKTS: AWKNF) continues to make headlines early in the new year, as the biotechnology company has just released the first results from their research into ketamine and the reduction of alcohol relapse.
We had last spoken with the team at Awakn to discuss their revolutionary study into ketamine and its potential to treat gambling disorders, a study that is the first of its kind.
Gambling disorders affect more than 450 million people worldwide, and outside of the traditional step meetings, few resources are available to help those seeking help for their compulsive and destructive behavior.
Awakn Life Sciences hopes to offer these gambling addicts a solution in the form of ketamine-based psychedelic therapeutics, with the team’s groundbreaking study already showing signs of hope.
President and CEO of Awakn Life Sciences Anthony Tennyson joins The Dales Report to update psychedelic investors on this recent run of promising news, and with Awakn just receiving ethical committee approval to extend their ongoing ketamine research to include eating disorders, compulsive sexual behavior, and internet gaming disorder, it appears the world is waking up to the potential that psychedelics could hole in the battle against addiction.
It is believed that alcohol use disorder affects 5% of the population (390 million) and estimates suggest that only 16% of those with the disease actually seek treatment.
Tennyson believes that the low success rates found in today’s treatment options are to blame.
“The trial set aims to assess if ketamine-assisted therapy would reduce the probability of relapse, and as a secondary endpoint, a reduction in depression, and improvement in liver function, and reduce the probability of fatality.”
“All of those primary and secondary endpoints were met.”
As the interview continues, Tennyson walks the listener through the intricacies of the study itself and further explains the significance of the early findings.
“The trial focused on treating people with chronic alcohol use disorder, who had a 2% abstinence rate, on average, before they started the treatment. For those who went through the ketamine-assisted psychotherapy arm of the trial, there was an 86% abstinence rate at six months post-treatment… from 2% optimates to 86%, abstinence.”
“That is a groundbreaking result for the treatment of this chronic, debilitating disease that so negatively affects individuals, families, and communities throughout the world. Right?”
While abstinence from alcohol served as the primary goal of the study, Tennyson was pleased to reveal that the results proved that trial subjects also experienced significant improvements in other mental and physical health areas.
“There was also a statistically significant improvement in liver function, a statistically significant improvement or reduction in depression, a notable reduction in something called anhedonia, which is the ability to enjoy life.”
Tennyson continues the conversation by walking the audience through each of the study’s data points, comparing the trial’s findings to those found in traditional treatment methods.
What quickly becomes evident is that the groundbreaking research being conducted by the professionals at Awakn Life Sciences could pave the way for the future in the battle against addictive behaviors.
As Tennyson pointed out, traditional treatment methods have offered little hope to the hundreds of millions around the world struggling with these mental diseases. In creating psychedelic-assisted therapies that carry stronger success rates, Tennyson hopes that more effective treatment options will inspire and motivate addicts to seek the help they need.
