DMT Offers Alternative for Treating Substance Use Disorders

Timothy Ko, CEO of Entheon, explains why Entheon has chosen to focus on DMT as a treatment for substance use disorders, how DMT differs from psilocybin and LSD, and the flexibility that it offers physicians and attending psychiatrists in approaching patients’ internal profiles.

Read the transcript:

Doug Edwards:  Hello, I'm Doug Edwards, director of the Psychiatry and Behavioral Health Learning Network. Today, I'm joined by Timothy Ko, CEO of Entheon, a Sana Symposium sponsor, which is exploring using the DMT molecule to treat addiction.

Mr. Ko's passion for the psychedelic space is shaped by firsthand knowledge of the shortcomings of the current mental health system, and through his exposure to psychedelics, which he credits with saving his life. Welcome, Mr. Ko. I'm so delighted you could join us today.

Timothy Ko:  Pleasure to be here.

Doug:  My main question is why has Entheon chosen to focus on DMT as a drug for the treatment of substance abuse disorders?

Timothy:  Really great question. I think over the course of the last couple of years, we've seen a lot of development within the psychedelic medicine space largely focused on psilocybin. There are a lot of ways to look at the value of the psychedelic experience.

In very broad strokes, I think we see the general introduction of entropy as being a crucial component to what makes psychedelics so interesting, as people are in pathological habituated states, especially in the state relative to addiction.

It is often the lack of subcritical thinking that keeps a person entrenched in that form of habituated, sometimes self-detrimental behavior and experience. Psychedelics have been shown to demonstrate the ability to introduce entropy and bring someone to that level of criticality that enables them to operate in a deep learning state.

Enables them to have new experiences, new perceptions, new beliefs from which new behaviors can take shape. I think that's crucial in that, especially for those that have very habituated or cemented trauma-based reactions, which is so typical with an addiction.

There is a need for breaking out of those well-worn grooves and enabling some form of new experience around certain deeply-rooted issues. Why we've chosen DMT other than a psychedelic like psilocybin is that due to the fact that these issues that a person suffering from addiction deals with are often quite large in scope.

The traditional psychedelic session as delivered by something like psilocybin, it is a lot of information of density. You may be unpacking the entirety of your life narrative, your attachments. A whole variety of potentially very challenging and sometimes quite activating things.

With long term psychedelics, there is this understanding that the individual may confront a lot of issues that are going to be inherently very fundamentally challenging. With psychedelics like psilocybin and LSD, I sometimes equate it to a solid state rocket. Once that dose is ingested, there is no real modulability in terms of how the effects are perceived.

You do go at the pace and the distance that that dose takes you. From the perspective of safety, an individual that is facing something that might be overly profound or overly challenging, there are no great ways to mitigate the intensity of that experience.

DMT, on the other hand, is a very short-acting molecule. It is well-metabolized by monoamine oxidase. Therefore, it does give us the ability to create a drug experience that is a lot more controllable.

If the individual faces something that is fundamentally too profound or difficult to deal with, we have the ability to stop the dosage or to titrate the dose, and to bring that person into a place that is a bit more tolerable or palatable.

It also gives us the ability to intersperse shorter drugs sessions, anywhere from 30, to 60, to 90 minutes, with a psychotherapy.

That the individual, rather than hoping that all of the profound recomposition of their belief systems takes place in one long session, rather approach it modularly or systematically, and maybe do it piece by piece and integrate following these shorter sessions.

It gives the physician or the attending psychiatrist a lot more flexibility in how they want to approach an individual's internal profile. DMT, for the reason that it is far more customizable, and that it gives the attending physician or psychiatrist a lot more flexibility in terms of how they would like to approach the individual that might be contending with some very difficult subject matter.

Doug:  Unfortunately, as the country continues to grapple with an addiction crisis as we move through COVID, overdoses are on the rise. Certainly, having more options to treat substance use disorder are going to be so important in the future.

If people are interested in learning more about Entheon and its research, where's the best place online for them to look?

Timothy:  Quite simply, entheonbiomedical.com. We encourage everyone to sign up to our newsletter and follow us on our socials. We have a lot of interesting and we think pioneering research, and development that we're excited to be doing. Please stay in the news stream. We'd love to share our progress with you.

Doug:  Thank you, Mr. Ko. I appreciate you spending some time with us today, telling us about what your organization is working on.

Doug:  Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you can join Mr. Ko and myself to learn more about the latest in psychedelic research and treatment strategies for mental health and for addiction professionals at the inaugural Sana Symposium.

It's a virtual event taking place this September from the same team that brings you the Evolution of Psychotherapy, Psych Congress, and the national conferences on addiction disorders. To learn more and to register, visit sanasymposium.com.