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The world is finally waking up to the importance of mental health. It is becoming more acceptable to talk about mental illness. Celebrities and athletes share their struggles openly. No longer is it the cultural norm to shame someone struggling with a mental health condition because we’ve realized that the truth is, most of us are.

A Major Issue

According to the Anxiety & Depression Association of America, or ADAA, 40 million American adults are affected by an anxiety disorder every year, and over 17 million experienced at least 1 major depressive episode in 2020 alone. In the same year, the U.S. recorded twice as many suicides as homicides. In fact, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S. and the 2nd leading cause in people aged 10 to 34.

Medicated

The need to properly treat these issues has never been higher. And doctors are prescribing medication at an ever-increasing rate to try and address them. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 13.21% of U.S. adults used an antidepressant in the last 30 days. That's up 64% from 1999.

The problem is, antidepressant technology has remained largely static for 40 years. The first selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) was introduced to the market in 1982 but was soon withdrawn due to side effects. Prozac, which is still one of the most prescribed, was introduced in 1987 and is manufactured by Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE:LLY).

Many of these antidepressants only really work on 50% of the population base with the possibility of many adverse side effects, can take weeks to kick in, and may be hard to ween off of.

A New Solution

Enveric Biosciences (NASDAQ:ENVB) is looking to provide a much-needed update. It recently acquired MagicMed Industries, a company using AI and a novel approach to create new derivatives. By combining synthetic biology and chemistry, it has been able to create more diversity in chemical structures than chemistry alone might be able to.

Psychedelics have long been known anecdotally to help with issues like depression and anxiety. Now, mounting clinical evidence is proving it scientifically. In a recent study at Johns Hopkins University, just 2 doses of psilocybin produced staggering results. 

“The magnitude of the effect we saw was about 4 times larger than what clinical trials have shown for traditional antidepressants on the market,” said Alan Davis, Ph.D., a professor at Johns Hopkins. Current SSRIs take weeks — even months — to take effect.