Addressing the Root Cause of Our Veterans’ Suicide Epidemic

On June 27th, I hosted a Special Order speech on the House floor to raise awareness of veteran Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I chose this date for a reason: June was National PTSD awareness month, and June 27th was National PTSD Awareness Day.

Ten percent of all veterans suffer from shell shock

According to the National Center for PTSD, ten percent of all Veterans suffer from PTSD. PTSD is the leading cause of the Veteran suicide epidemic, claiming between 17 and 44 Veteran lives each and every DAY – a cumulative loss of nearly 150,000 Veteran lives since 9/11. This figure is 21 times greater than the 7,000 servicemembers we lost in post-9/11 warzones, making PTSD exponentially more lethal than combat.

To keep my fellow Veterans’ plight at the forefront of American minds, I have made it my mission every day to raise awareness of PTSD. However, it also begs the question of what is being done to help those who suffer. Despite billions of federal dollars spent on addressing PTSD, the number of Veteran lives lost to suicide has not decreased. This is due in part to the fact that the FDA has not approved any new treatments for PTSD in nearly 25 years. This astounding lack of innovation has undoubtedly contributed to our rising Veteran suicide rates over the past two decades.

Help is on the way

Fortunately, hope is on the horizon. Psychedelic-assisted therapies like MDMA-assisted therapy (MDMA-AT) have the clinically proven potential to bring Veterans who have long suffered with PTSD a treatment that works. MDMA-AT has shown enormous promise in privately funded research for decades and was officially designated “Breakthrough Therapy” by the FDA in 2017. The FDA has since worked with the drug’s sponsor to design clinical trials, which ultimately proved MDMA-AT’s remarkable efficacy. In Phase three confirmatory trials, 71.2% of participants, who suffered from PTSD an average of 14 years, no longer qualified for a PTSD diagnosis after three eight-hour sessions of MDMA-AT. Moreover, 86.5% of participants experienced “clinically significant” improvements in their PTSD symptoms. These results are nearly double those of existing PTSD treatments, rendering MDMA-AT the most effective PTSD treatment ever developed.

The science supporting MDMA-AT has helped me garner significant bipartisan support for this remarkable “Breakthrough Therapy” in Congress; so much so that my colleagues and I unanimously approved federal funding in both FY24 and FY25, to implement MDMA-AT throughout the VA health care system as soon as it is FDA-approved. Recently, the VA issued its first-ever Request for Applications (RFA) for clinicians and researchers to study MDMA-AT’s impact on veteran patients. The VA also announced the creation of a new implementation team, that has already begun working through the logistics of implementing MDMA-AT in VA clinics nationwide. Given its political support, and the science and data, supporting MDMA-AT’s efficacy, MDMA-AT’s fast-track approval was all but expected this August.

Activists who hate veterans, are blocking a promising treatment

Unfortunately, MDMA-AT has recently encountered an obstacle on its way to healing Veterans. Despite extraordinary clinical outcomes, MDMA-AT faced unfounded criticism from an FDA Advisory Committee that voted against recommending it for FDA approval. It was later discovered that the committee was influenced by a carefully coordinated campaign to stop MDMA-AT from ever being used to treat Veterans. This campaign was led by activists who labeled Veterans “murderers” and “imperialists,” and claimed that treating Veterans for PTSD “perpetuates the logic of white supremacism, capitalism and imperialism.” Their perspective influenced the Committee to question the efficacy and safety of MDMA-AT, in spite of overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary.

As an American who is privileged to be the highest-ranking combat Veteran to ever serve in the U.S. Congress, I cannot sit by silently while our Veteran suicide epidemic continues to ravage my brothers and sisters. PTSD is a matter of life and death to those of us who’ve bravely served our Nation – not a political issue to be questioned or debated. The evidence in favor of MDMA-AT is overwhelming – and it’s high time we stop playing politics with this deadly disorder and start giving Veterans the tools they need to bring our suicide epidemic to an end.

Call to action

Please join me in urging the FDA to help change our collective Veteran story from one of despair to one of triumph. Like so many others, I am eager to turn the page on the PTSD narrative that has been dominated by dysfunction, disorder, and debilitation. It’s time to shine a light, instead, on the possibility of growth in the aftermath of trauma. FDA approval of MDMA-AT is a significant and necessary step in that direction, and there’s no better time to do it than now. Fighting for those who’ve fought for us is the most patriotic thing we can do, as we have just celebrated our freedom on July 4^th.

This article was originally published by RealClearDefense and made available via RealClearWire.