VA Under Secretary Elaborates on Federal Investments into Research on MDMA-Assisted Therapy for Veterans
Dr. Shereef Elnahal joins Dr. Jason Pyle to discuss the VA’s first-ever federally-funded research into psychedelic-assisted therapies for veterans.
May 10, 2024 (New York, NY) – This morning, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Under Secretary of Health, Dr. Shereef Elnahal, spoke with Executive Director of Healing Breakthrough, Dr. Jason Pyle, onstage at the Horizons conference in New York, regarding the agency’s efforts to gather definitive scientific evidence on the potential efficacy and safety of MDMA and psilocybin when used in conjunction with psychotherapy to treat Veterans with PTSD and depression.
“Thanks to VA and the Biden-Harris Administration for the commitment to exploring all avenues to promote the health of our nation's Veterans,” said Dr. Jason Pyle, who is an Army veteran himself. “Healing Breakthrough will continue supporting the VA’s remarkable work until every veteran is able to access MDMA-AT’s healing potential safely and legally throughout the VA healthcare system.”
In January, the VA issued a Request for Applications (RFA) to study the use of certain psychedelic compounds to improve the health and quality of life of Veterans. The announcement marked the first time since the 1960s that VA has sought to fund research on such compounds. As with all VA studies, research conducted on psychedelics will be completed under stringent safety protocols.
Dr. Shereef Elnahal speaks on the work VA is doing currently in the area of MDMA-AT.
“The reason I’m here is that, the data and the results, the stories that I’ve heard from Veterans who have gone through these studies and who have gone through these therapies, speak for themselves.” said Dr. Shereef Elnahal. “Here’s the reality. For conditions like PTSD and particularly unique manifestations of PTSD that we see among Veterans, the evidence-based therapies that we have, while they help, pale in comparison if we are able to replicate the scale of preliminary results we have seen in the studies for psychedelics, especially MDMA for PTSD, and increasingly psilocybin for treatment resistant depression. So that is the reason I’m here.”
MDMA-AT’s Phase three clinical trials found that 71% of trial participants no longer qualified for a PTSD diagnosis after three eight-hour MDMA-AT therapy sessions, while 87% experienced clinically significant improvement in their symptoms. MDMA-AT is currently under priority review with the FDA, and a final decision on its approval is expected this summer.
Horizons is the longest-running and largest professional conference on the future of psychedelics in medicine, business and culture. Since 2007, the conference has been convening leaders in clinical research, medicine, business, philanthropy and public policy to discuss how the introduction of psychedelic medicine is shaping our nation's future.
Under Secretary for Health at VA Dr. Shereef Elnahal posing for a photo with Jessie Gould, founder of Heroic Hearts, and Healing Breakthrough’s Juliana Mercer and Jason Pyle