Results from a new analysis have revealed an improvement in mental health and cognition for Special Operations Forces veterans following a combination of psychedelic treatments.
The analysis revealed that one treatment each of two psychedelic drugs lowered depression and anxiety and improved cognitive functioning in a sample of U.S. Special Operations Forces veterans.
The veterans had sought care at a clinic in Mexico, and the treatment included a combination of ibogaine hydrochloride, derived from the West African shrub iboga, and 5-MeO-DMT, a psychedelic substance secreted by the Colorado River toad.
The treatments were shown to have relieved symptoms of PTSD and also alleviated cognitive impairment linked to traumatic brain injury.
The analysis was carried out by researchers at The Ohio State University, where psilocybin-assisted therapy is currently being studied at Ohio State for the treatment of PTSD among military veterans, and has been published in the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse.
Mental health in veterans
With many special operations forces veterans not responding to traditional therpies for complex psychiatric symptoms, there is a desperate need for innovation in mental health care treatments.
The researchers highlighted that most of the veterans attending the clinic retreat programme had been on active duty after 9/11 and reported seeking care for memory problems, brain injury, depression, anxiety, PTSD, sleep problems, anger and fatigue.
A total of 86% of attendees had reported having head injuries were reported by, most of whom attributed memory problems, irritability, disordered sleep and ringing in the ears to those long-ago head traumas.
Pre-treatment questionnaires assessing a range of mental health symptoms as well as satisfaction with life, anger levels and suicidality were completed by 86 veterans.
Each attendee received a single oral ibogaine hydrochloride dose and, on a separate day, at least three incremental inhalation doses adding up to 50 milligrams of 5-MeO-DMT, with preparation and reflection sessions before and after each treatment.
Lead author Alan Davis, Associate Professor and Director of the Center for Psychedelic Drug Research and Education (CPDRE) in Ohio State’s College of Social Work, stated: “What sets this group apart from some other veterans and civilians is that often, they are exposed to repeated traumatic events as a routine part of their jobs.
“This build-up of exposure to these difficulties seems to produce a cluster of challenges that include traumatic brain injury, which we know in and of itself predisposes people to mental health problems.
“So the fact that we saw that there were improvements in cognitive functioning linked to brain injury were probably the most striking results, because that’s something we didn’t predict and it’s very new and novel in terms of how psychedelics might help in so many different domains.”
Analysis results
The analysis revealed that participants reported large improvements in self-reported PTSD symptoms, depression, anxiety, insomnia severity and anger, as well as a significant increase in satisfaction with life, from pre-treatment to the one-month follow-up.
Sustained benefits at the three- and six-month follow-ups were also reported along with improvements that continued for six months, such as reductions in disability and post-concussive symptoms, and very large increases in psychological flexibility and cognitive functioning.
Davis said the improved cognitive functioning warrants more research into whether better thinking results from lowered mental health symptoms or biological changes to signaling in the brain, or a mixture of both types of effects.
The researchers also noted that changes to psychological flexibility – one’s capacity to act in ways that are consistent with their values regardless of whatever internal or external experience they might have – have been found in previous research to be connected to insightful and mystical psychedelic experiences.
“I think we’re seeing a similar picture emerging here where the more one is psychologically flexible, the more likely it is that one’s mental health symptoms will be reduced or ameliorated,” Davis said.
Most attendees also reported moderate to strong desirable changes across a range of attitudes, behaviours and relationships.
One month after treatment, 48.6% reported the psychedelic experience was the most spiritually significant of their lives, while 42.9% reported it was psychologically insightful, and 17.1% reported it was the most difficult or challenging experience in their life.
Davis and colleagues took a conservative approach to analyzing outcome data, building in an assumption that attendees who didn’t complete all of the follow-up surveys may not have gotten the relief they had hoped for from the treatment.
However, the authors highlight that finding that a population of veterans with complicated trauma histories can benefit from psychedelic therapy supports the importance of continuing to test psychedelic-assisted therapies in US clinical trials.
The analysis was funded by Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions and the authors are supported by the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research at Johns Hopkins University, the CPDRE, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Co-authors of the study include Yitong Xin and Nathan Sepeda of Ohio State and Lynnette Averill of Baylor College of Medicine and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
