Frontiers in Anxiety and Depression: Clinical and Pharmaceutical Perspectives

Freda Lewis-Hall, MD, surveyed the persistent unmet need in anxiety and depression treatment and her organization's efforts to address it through novel serotonergic pharmacology. Lewis-Hall emphasized that despite decades of therapeutic advancement, nearly half of the estimated 20 million patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) continued to experience inadequate symptom relief. She described Helus Pharma’s pipeline of novel serotonergic agonists—particularly HLP004 for GAD and HLP003 for major depressive disorder—as adjunctive therapies aimed at delivering durable, meaningful improvement for treatment-refractory patients.¹

Lewis-Hall characterized the current moment in psychiatry as one of productive bidirectionality: simultaneously looking forward to emerging neuroscience and technologies while revisiting previously underexplored mechanisms. She cited psychedelics as an illustrative example of this approach, noting that "the conversation has shifted from stigma to science."² She argued that deepening understanding of serotonergic pathways and their effects on neural circuitry was enabling a more targeted and differentiated approach to treatment—one increasingly attentive to heterogeneity within diagnostic categories such as depression.

Reflecting on her trajectory from frontline clinician to pharmaceutical industry leader, Lewis-Hall identified listening and partnering as the 2 competencies she wished she had cultivated earlier. She stressed that engaging with patient narratives frequently yielded pivotal clinical insights, observing that "those aha moments come many times when you're sitting across from a patient." She encouraged psychiatrists to engage with the research paradigm—whether as clinical trial investigators or through patient referral—framing such participation as both professionally enriching and essential to advancing the field.

Dr Lewis-Hall is on the board of directors and is chair of the scientific committee for Helus Pharma.

References

1. Kuntz L. New phase 2 signal detection results: HLP004 for moderate-to-severe generalized anxiety disorder. Psychiatric Times. March 5, 2026. https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/new-phase-2-signal-detection-results-hlp004-for-moderate-to-severe-generalized-anxiety-disorder

2. Psychedelics research and psilocybin therapy. Johns Hopkins Medicine. Accessed March 6, 2026. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/psychiatry/research/psychedelics-research