The head of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is reiterating his commitment to exploring the efficacy of psychedelic medicines to address serious mental health conditions that commonly afflict military veterans.
During a hearing before the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee on Tuesday, Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) asked VA Secretary Doug Collins to expand on the agency’s plans around the issue, referencing recent comments the official made about psychedelics during a Cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump.
Boozman said the committee is “very interested” in the issue as it seeks to find solutions for veterans suffering from conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI).
In response to the senator’s question, Collins said he is “committed to doing whatever we can to provide veterans and those who have maybe not responded to traditional care and others, especially in the area of PTS and also TBI—the other issues that we’re dealing with that lead to a lot of what we’ve seen in suicide and death by suicide.”
“So we’re looking at it right now,” Collins, a former GOP congressman, said.
The secretary said VA is either conducting or supporting 11 studies exploring the therapeutic potential of psychedelics, including one recent clinical trial on MDMA that’s showing “some really good results” among participants after a single dose followed by two weeks of therapy.
“I’m willing to say this: I want to work with—and I said this with [the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services] and with others—that we make sure that we’re not closing off any outlet for a veteran who could be helped by these programs,” he said. “And I think we’ll definitely be working with Congress on that if there seems to be something else we need.”
Collins has previously said he had an “eye-opening” talk with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about psychedelics issues and intended to press Congress to act.
Later in the Senate committee hearing on Tuesday, the secretary said again that, within VA, “we’ve talked about how can we do tap into research into maybe psychedelics or other things that help, getting in more with our [veteran service organizations] and our nonprofits to actually make a difference here.”
“I think this is something we’ve got to have,” he said.
Collins has also previously said that he’s open to the idea of having the government provide vouchers to cover the costs of psychedelic therapy for veterans who receive services outside of VA as Congress considers pathways for access.
In December, VA separately announced that it’s providing $1.5 million in funding to study the efficacy of MDMA-assisted therapy for veterans with PTSD and alcohol use disorder (AUD).
Last year, Rachel Yehuda, who has overseen some psychedelic research as director of mental health at VA’s James J. Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center, also touted an initial study the agency funded that produced “stunning and robust results” from its first-ever clinical trial into MDMA therapy.
In January, former VA Under Secretary for Health Shereef Elnahal said that it was “very encouraging” that Trump’s pick to have Kennedy lead HHS has supported psychedelics reform. And he hoped to work with him on the issue if he stayed on for the next administration, but that didn’t pan out.
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