The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is funding a psychedelic-assisted therapy study for veterans with PTSD and alcohol use disorder. Researchers from Yale University and Brown University will evaluate the efficacy of MDMA, a psychedelic drug, in therapy as a form of treatment for veterans.
Veterans participating in the study will either be given a higher dose of MDMA or a lower dose, with the latter being the active placebo. This ensures unblinding, the idea that both the participant and therapist are unaware of which test group they are in, which helps maintain scientific integrity. The drug will be used during four out of the twelve total therapy sessions, which will be conducted at medical centers in Connecticut and Rhode Island. MDMA is believed to reduce fear and increase emotional openness and introspection during therapy.
“[MDMA] has been observed to allow patients to take a step back and really investigate and deconstruct their own trauma in a way that a veteran with active PTSD has a lot of difficulty doing,” said Shereef Elnahal, M.D., undersecretary for Health for Veterans Affairs. “Recalling even parts of those memories trigger all the PTSD symptoms we know about, but what MDMA does is essentially calms those senses down.”
The VA received $1.5 million to fund the study over five years.
“That's important because what we want to do is not only assess the results, you know, three months, six months after the therapy is concluded, but also to see what the durability of effect is,” Elnahal said. “We’re seeing very high rates of patients no longer meeting criteria for PTSD, which is great news. We’re also seeing significantly high rates, higher than conventional therapies, of full remission of PTSD.”
Elnahal said there is no administration of the drug after the therapy sessions are completed. He also added they have not seen patients wanting to use the drug recreationally.
The funding is part of a larger effort by the organization to gather evidence on the safety and usefulness of psychedelic drugs to help treat mental health problems in veterans.
This is the first VA-funded psychedelic study since the 1960s.
