The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is launching a new trial on whether MDMA-assisted therapy can help military veterans who are struggling with severe mental health disorders, including PTSD and alcohol use disorder.<\/p>\n
The study will involve approximately 80 veterans and will compare outcomes between those who take MDMA and undergo psychotherapy and those in a control group who receive identical psychotherapy without the drug.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need an all-of-the-above strategy when it comes to improving mental health treatments, and under President Trump, that\u2019s exactly what VA is working to deliver,\u201d VA Secretary Doug Collins said in a press release on Tuesday. \u201cThis trial represents an important step in safely evaluating new approaches and innovations to treat Veterans with severe mental health conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The research, which comes on the heels of an executive order President Donald Trump signed last month with the aim of expediting psychedelic therapy access<\/a>, will take place at VA Providence Healthcare System in Rhode Island.<\/p>\n VA\u2019s press release says the health and safety of veterans who participate is the department\u2019s \u201ctop priority.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cInvestigational treatments will be delivered in a safe, controlled, clinical setting using pharmaceutical grade drugs under careful quality controls, stringent safety protocols that were developed with [the Food and Drug Administration], and in a setting that includes structured psychotherapy,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n \u201cVA strongly discourages self-medicating or attempting to replace other mental health treatment options with psychedelics or any other unprescribed substances,\u201d the release says. \u201cProven, evidence-based treatments, are currently available at VA facilities to treat Veterans with mental health conditions. Veterans should always consult their health care providers before making any treatment decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n The department is currently involved in 19 active clinical trials focused on psychedelic therapies for mental health conditions, supported by more than $23 million in external funding, the release<\/a> says.<\/p>\n The announcement of the new MDMA trial comes days after Collins, the VA secretary, told a Senate committee during a hearing that the Trump administration\u2019s broader push to accelerate research on the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics may be slowed by difficulty in sourcing ibogaine to be used in studies<\/a> on that substance.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s got to come through [the Food and Drug Administration] first. We\u2019ll be prepared for that,\u201d he said. \u201cWe also have to have a federal source of sourcing the ibogaine, which we don\u2019t have a costing on at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n The secretary also noted that psychedelic therapies are \u201cclinically intensive treatments\u201d that can prove costly to carry out.<\/p>\n \u201cMDMA requires almost 120 hours per patient with two psychiatrists going through this,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we\u2019re working to work up to speed on that.\u201d<\/p>\n The House of Representatives, meanwhile, passed an amendment to a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) funding bill this month that seeks to\u00a0raise awareness about the benefits of psychedelic and other therapies for military veterans<\/a>.<\/p>\n FDA and the HHS last month announced steps that they say will help with\u00a0\u201caccelerating\u201d therapeutic access to psychedelics for patients dealing with serious mental health conditions<\/a>.<\/p>\n HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said recently that the\u00a0Trump administration is \u201cvery anxious\u201d to create a pathway for access to psychedelics therapy<\/a>\u00a0and that top officials across federal agencies want to \u201cget it out to the public as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n In an interview on the Joe Rogan Experience in February, Kennedy said he\u2019s confident \u201cwe\u2019re going to get it done,\u201d with plans to develop and finalize rules that would enable patients with conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression to access psychedelic substances like psilocybin and MDMA in a \u201cvery controlled setting.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody in my agency\u2026is very anxious to get a rule out there that will allow these kind of studies and will allow access under therapeutic settings, particularly [for] the military soldiers who have suffered these injuries to get access to these products,\u201d the HHS secretary said. \u201cWe\u2019re working through that process now. We\u2019re all working on it and trying to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think that we\u2019re going to get it done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Last June, Kennedy said his agency is\u00a0\u201cabsolutely committed\u201d to expanding research on the benefits of psychedelic therapy<\/a>\u00a0and, alongside of the head of FDA, is aiming to provide legal access to such substances for military veterans \u201cwithin 12 months.\u201d<\/p>\n Collins disclosed last year that he had an \u201ceye-opening\u201d talk with Kennedy\u00a0about the therapeutic potential of psychedelic medicine<\/a>. And he said he\u2019s open to the idea of having the government provide vouchers to cover the costs of psychedelic therapy for veterans who receive services outside of VA as Congress considers pathways for access.<\/p>\n Photo courtesy of Pretty Drugthings on Unsplash<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post VA Launches New Study On MDMA To Treat Veterans With PTSD And Alcohol Use Disorder<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is launching a new trial on whether MDMA-assisted therapy can help military veterans who are struggling with severe mental health disorders, including PTSD and alcohol use disorder. The study will involve approximately 80 veterans and will compare outcomes between those who take MDMAContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":459,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15462],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86080"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/459"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86080"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86081,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86080\/revisions\/86081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: VA Launches New Study On MDMA To Treat Veterans With PTSD And Alcohol Use Disorder<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"