Treating Psychiatric Conditions with Tripless Psychedelics

There’s been growing interest in exploring the potential of psychedelics to treat neuropsychiatric conditions. Onsero Therapeutics is part of a growing list of companies that are developing therapies that target the 5-HT2A serotonin receptor, the receptor to which several of psychedelics bind, and one that has been clinically validated in a number of psychiatric conditions. The company believes the therapies it’s developing have the potential to provide the treatment benefits of these substances without their better-known effects. We spoke to Tim Piser, chief scientific officer of Onsero, about the case for these drugs to treat conditions like mood disorder, how it’s developing its experimental therapies so they don’t induce effects, and why he believes benefits of these drugs can exist independently of them packing a psychedelic punch.