Liam Payne has invested in a depression treatment made from psychedelics.
Liam Payne
The former One Direction singer has been speaking to 'Dragon's Den' entrepreneur Steven Bartlett "every day" about the project after the 28-year-old businessman persuaded him to invest in his ATAI Life Sciences company, which is undertaking clinical trials to look at treating the mood disorder with elements of magic mushrooms.
Hailing his firm as "the biggest psychedelics mental health company in the world”, Steven told the Daily Mirror newspaper: “There are clinical trials going on at the moment using one of the psychedelic compounds called psilocybin. It is a compound that is found in magic mushrooms.
“It unlocks your subconscious, as much of what causes resistant depression and depression generally isn’t that you have something like a melt in your brain, it is more to do with something that has happened to you.”
But the businessman insisted the treatment would only ever be used in controlled settings.
He added: “What we are pushing for is for it to be legal in clinical settings – not for it to be legal out on the streets.”
Liam has previously spoken of his own struggles with depression and recently opened up about the importance of having someone to confide in.
Asked what helped him through lockdown, he said: "Friends that are there for you... [talking to] one of my managers that I'm quite close with. I think a lot of guys struggle to talk about what the hell is going on a lot of the time.
"And for me and him, actually we're quite heart on our sleeves sort of people, so we talk a lot about different things. But I think if I didn't have that, someone to share that with, I think I would have struggled a hell of a lot more.
"I mean, we literally talk about everything. We're probably too honest with each other!
"But I think it's important that everybody has that person."
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