The largest veterans organization in the U.S. is calling on Congress to pass a bill to promote research into the therapeutic potential of psychedelics by creating a new office focused on the issue in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
The American Legion, which represents more than 1.2 million members, adopted a resolution at its national convention earlier this month endorsing the Veterans Health Administration Novel Therapeutics Preparedness Act, which it said would “establish a dedicated VA Office of Novel Therapeutics and Centers of Excellence in each VA regional district to build the governance, workforce and clinical infrastructure required to responsibly deliver these therapies to eligible veterans.”
“Rapid-acting novel therapeutics” such as psychedelics like psilocybin “have demonstrated clinically significant results for treatment-resistant PTSD, anxiety, depression and co-occurring mental health conditions in peer-reviewed clinical trials, including U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) studies showing PTSD remission in two-thirds of participants—findings of a magnitude not previously achieved with any existing VA-approved treatment,” the resolution says.
The measure notes high suicide rates among veterans and says that “existing VA-approved treatments, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and trauma-focused therapies, fail to achieve sustained remission in the majority of veterans with combat-related PTSD and carry dropout
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