Are We Overlooking Immediate Solutions for Veterans?
Advisers to the FDA voted 9-2 against approving MDMA for the treatment of PTSD. I have mixed feelings about the outcome.
VA Secretary David Shulkin posted on LinkedIn yesterday about his disappointment, suggesting the drug would help lower the Veteran suicide rate.
His post was inappropriate. The FDA approval of MDMA wouldn’t have led to instant relief for the nearly 1 million Veterans with PTSD.
It’s not fair to Veterans to pin their hopes on the approval of an experimental treatment when the VA and other health systems have failed to give easy access to interventions that are already known to be effective.
I know plenty of Veterans in Montana who can’t get appointments with mental health specialists for a diagnosis of PTSD in the first place.
Nevermind getting a prescription for MDMA.
Owen M. wrote a great Substack piece on why the panel decided Lykos’ proposed treatment was not considered effective.
I would have liked to see a flurry of posts from policymakers and healthcare leaders committing to double down on the dissemination of existing treatments for PTSD.
None of our PTSD treatments are perfect. But, from my work performing disability examinations, I know there are thousands of Veterans who don’t even know they have the diagnosis.
JAMA Psychiatry published an article online today about a randomized controlled trial that showed acupuncture for PTSD is extremely effective. I’m waiting for the celebratory posts…
Had the panel supported the MDMA-assisted treatment, Veterans would have immediately encountered painful barriers to accessing care:
- DEA classification and restriction of online prescribing.
- Problems with the supply of MDMA nationally.
- Resistance to prescribing MDMA by many providers.
- Specialized training required to prescribe the drug.
- Access to the manualized therapy required to take MDMA.
There would have been a brief celebration and then we’d be reading headlines about the thousands of Veterans frustrated with how poorly we rolled out the intervention.
I’m calling on us to effectively disseminate and use the tools we already have.
Thousands of Veterans who are contemplating suicide today will thank us.
Photo Credit: Jack Bell Photography
