BetterLife Pharma Inc. announced that its scientific collaborators, Drs. Vern Lewis and Argel Aguilar-Valles from Carleton University's Department of Neuroscience in Ottawa, Canada, will present on the anti-depressant and anti-anxiety activity of BetterLife's 2-bromo-LSD ("BETR-001") at the upcoming SOBP Conference, being held April 27-29, 2023 at San Diego, California, USA. BETR-001 is a non-hallucinogenic Lysergic Acid Diethylamide ("LSD") derivative molecule. Dr. Lewis will present preclinical data showing that BETR-001 promoted active stress-coping behaviours, and reverses
depression and anxiety-like behaviours, in chronically stressed and stress-naïve mouse models. The positive behavioural effects of BETR-001 correlated with improved spine density (increased neuroplasticity) in the prefrontal cortex of these mice. Furthermore, the mechanism of BETR-001-mediated effects were shown to be driven by the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor in these preclinical models. The presentation abstract is published in the May 1, 2023 edition of the journal of Biological Psychiatry.