Psychedelics to treat veterans with PTSD? Research underway…
Juliana Mercer is a Marine Corps veteran who served in both Iraq and in Afghanistan. To help address what she was going through after her return, Mercer traveled to a Central American country. A non-profit pointed the way leading Mercer to travel to where she could leverage magic mushrooms. today, she advocates for the use of psychedelic therapy for veterans experiencing mental health issues.
From the Military Times:
“I have no doubt that we are currently witnessing how safe and responsible use of psychedelics is ushering in a revolutionary era for psychiatry and psychotherapy,” he added.
Mercer expects the FDA to approve the treatment by next year, while psilocybin is four or five years behind it.
The success of initial trials comes as a mental health crisis sweeps through veteran communities. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, one in 10 male veterans and nearly two in 10 female veterans suffer from PTSD.
Veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom suffer from near-epidemic levels of PTSD, as nearly 30% of those veterans say they have suffered from PTSD at some point in their lives.
Suicide levels among veterans are higher than what the federal government once thought, too. America’s Warrior Partnership, in partnership with the University of Alabama and Duke University, found thousands of suspected or confirmed veteran suicides in eight states from 2014 to 2018 that were not counted by federal officials.
If the study was replicated across other states, researchers believe that would increase the veteran suicide rate from 17 deaths a day — the VA’s official estimate — to 44 deaths a day.
Currently, there are seven trials taking place across the country through the VA. But the problem, Mercer said, is that each study is philanthropically funded.
“There’s no federal support, no federal funding on this treatment that has the potential to fix the veterans suicide epidemic and the PTSD problem,” Mercer said. “So we’re educating our lawmakers, telling them that we need to support the VA financially so that they can figure out how to basically roll out MDMA-assisted therapy as soon as it’s FDA-approved.”
Military Times has more information here.
Category: Mental Health, Veteran Health Care, Veterans in the news, Veterans Issues, Veterans' Affairs Department
Timothy Leary…grins!
Airplane’s “White Rabbit”… but, of course:
I’m an any-port-in-a-storm type, so if it helps cool. A silver bullet for the peeteeessdee? I’m a bit old to be believing in the little people, too.
Doesn’t “cure” a damn thing, but you won’t care.
I’ve heard it can peel wallpaper.
Makes sense to me. Mushroom trips are the closest thing I have ever had to a religious experience.
Combined with CBT, this has potential to go places where talk therapy alone cannot.
Better take them to Dr Blinky.
http://youtu.be/ugQwYNZljeQ?feature=shared
Yeah, the real suicide rate is over 100% higher. Forgive my skepticism.
Well, why not?
You might still have your PTSD, but now you can talk it over with that really groovy dragon that lives in your bedroom closet…
Snake oil to the left of me, Moonbats to Right, Here I am Stuck in the Real World with you.
The Marine who runs GoDaddy did that stuff too, and he claims it really squared him away.
I’m always skeptical of these types of studies because far too many are poorly done. I’ve dug into the originators of the study, but cannot find the actual study, just a synopsis of it. What I can discern so far is that it suffers from the same problems that the original 22/day study had. I’ll try to dig up the study but it appears that it hasn’t been published yet. Hence, I recommend that it be taken with a large grain of salt.
Per the use of magic mushrooms, “Be all that you can be – a stoner.” Pretty sure that is the
Army’s latest slogan (add your own term in place of stoner).