EXCLUSIVE: Enosis Therapeutics & Ovid Clinics Develop World's First In-Clinic VR For Psychedelic Therapy

Australian biotech psychedelics start-up Enosis Therapeutics has partnered with Berlin-based healthcare services provider OVID Clinics and the MIND Foundation to set up a pilot program to create the world’s first in-clinic application of virtual reality (VR) concurrently with psychedelic-assisted therapy. 

Enrollment for the inaugural VR program, VRPP, is open now through OVID’s network of clinics. The new offer entails that patients will get the opportunity to receive ketamine-assisted psychotherapy integrated with Enosis’ science-backed virtual technology therapy protocols and modules.

“Enosis is delighted to have found a clinical partner who shares our values and our vision that technology can be a tool, when utilized appropriately, towards improving the patient experience and therapeutic outcomes,” said Agnieszka Sekula, Enosis co-founder and psychedelics researcher. 

“This is a key milestone for Enosis as we take the next step and apply our research to practice. We are proud to put our VR models into the hands of the OVID team and their therapy protocols to deliver a positive therapeutic experience to patients in need,” she said.

On behalf of OVID, co-founder and CEO Dr. Sergio Pérez Rosal stated: “At OVID Clinics, we believe in a personalized, evidence-based, medical and psychotherapeutic approach tailored to the patient's needs. We recognize the value of Enosis´ VR technologies in the integration process following psychedelic therapy.”

Earlier this year, Enosis and the Swinburne University of Technology in Australia led the world’s first study on the synergistic application of VR in psychedelics, which delivered positive outcomes in which preliminary results showed that Enosis VR scenarios combined with a guided psychedelic experience generated high levels of acceptance and satisfaction. 

This study’s findings triggered the idea of offering proprietary VR technology for wider in-clinic use.

“Enhancing patient accessibility to our VR experiences remains our top priority and we are excited to bring this novel treatment to patients in need," Sekula said. "Together with the OVID team, our focus is to achieve positive patient outcomes and longer-lasting therapeutic benefits for patients battling mental health illnesses.”

Rosal added that OVID’s team is convinced that the present partnership will help innovate the field by shifting the focus from the psychedelic substance to the psychedelic experience and its integration, supporting patients throughout their entire journey into a state of well-being.

Additionally, the Enosis-OVID partnership will gather data for a research collaboration toward investigating the synergistic effects of psychedelic and digital interventions.

A Deeper Look Into The Collaborators’ Individual Work

The European MIND Foundation is a not-for-profit science and education organization promoting psychedelic research and therapy. MIND also offers psychedelic-assisted therapy training to physicians and psychotherapists. Its Augmented Psychotherapy Training (APT) has digital interventions included in the curriculum.

MIND’s clinical partner is OVID. The German-based network of clinics performs psychedelics research and development as well as assisted therapy. Its SAND protocol foresees the implementation of serotonergic and atypical psychedelic substances as well as non-pharmacological and digital interventions to promote mental health. 

Enosis intends to locate at the intersection of research and industry, providing designed VR scenarios and clinical protocols that employ them at specific points of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy to improve the quality of the patient experience and therapy outcomes.

The proposed therapeutic approach promotes non-cognitive, experiential, emotional and embodied aspects of treatment. The reason behind it is that along with co-founder and long-time psychedelics advocate Dr. Prashanth Puspanathan, the Enosis leadership seeks to empower patients to actively direct their own healing journey by using VR to break away from the constraints of the analog system. 

Photo courtesy of Enosis (cofounder Agnieszka D. Sekula).