Science & Health
Psychedelic Retreats ‘Significantly Improved’ Mental Health For Military Veterans With PTSD And Depression, Study Finds
A new study of military veterans who attended psychedelics retreats finds that psilocybin and ayahuasca both yielded significant improvements in participants’ mental health, including reductions in symptoms of PTSD, depression and anxiety as well as improved sleep, quality of life and post-deployment reintegration.
The report, published in the journal Brain and Behavior, describes the research as “the first study to investigate psychedelic retreats as a holistic therapy for veterans’ mental health alongside community reintegration.”
“Psilocybin and ayahuasca retreats significantly improved veterans’ mental well-being, quality of life, PTSD, anxiety, depression, sleep, concussion, and post-deployment reintegration,” it says, adding that the retreats “could provide a treatment framework to aid veterans’ recovery by addressing psychological well-being, communal factors, and reintegration into civilian life.”
The study followed 55 veterans who self-enrolled in psychedelic retreats using psilocybin or ayahuasca following a program by Heroic Hearts Project, a nonprofit that connects veterans with psychedelic therapy in jurisdictions where it’s legal.
“For psilocybin, the substance was taken as a tea brewed from dried psilocybin mushrooms with individualized doses determined by the retreat staff between 1.5 and 3.5 g for Session 1 and between 3 and 5 g for Session 2,” the report says. “One gram boosters of psilocybin were offered one hour from the initial dose.”
“The ayahuasca group participated in three consecutive ceremonies of 6–10 h, whereas those administered psilocybin completed two ceremonies 48 h apart,” it continues. “Participants were required to stay at the retreat site for the duration of the retreat.”
Veterans completed a battery of eight health questionnaires that measured various mental health symptoms. Notably, those who participated in psilocybin therapy “showed greater improvements in seven out of eight outcomes, whereas ayahuasca retreats demonstrated greater improvements in PCL-5 scores for PTSD,” authors wrote.
“Comparing ayahuasca and psilocybin retreats, participants who were administered psilocybin exhibited greater reductions in depression, anxiety, post-concussion symptoms, and post-deployment reintegration. Contrastingly, participants in the ayahuasca retreats showed a slightly greater improvement in PTSD symptoms. This suggests that, while psilocybin may be more effective for treating a wide range of conditions and challenges faced by veterans, ayahuasca could offer specific benefits for treating PTSD.”
Results also indicated that “participants with a reported PTSD diagnosis did not experience greater improvements than the general cohort across the measures used,” they said.
Across both types of psychedelic retreat, the study found “significant improvements across all outcome measures related to psychological and general well-being four weeks after retreat attendance.”
“Participants who attended a Heroic Hearts Project psychedelic retreat program experienced significant improvements in general health, well-being, perceived quality of life, anxiety, depression, sleep, and post-deployment reintegration. In addition, attending a psychedelic retreat had large, significant effects on self-reported measures of PTSD,” the report says. “Overall, findings underscore the positive impact of the psychedelic retreat program on various aspects of veterans’ mental health and general well-being.”
As for the community element of the retreats, researchers said the communal experience may be “particularly relevant for veterans, as social support is a crucial aspect of the healing process within veteran communities as they return to civilian life.”
“The communal aspect of psychedelic retreats may therefore enhance the therapeutic benefits in this group by creating the shared experience and support essential for veterans’ reintegration,” they wrote, “though further research on the unique contribution of social and group factors is required.”
The new paper was authored by a nine-person team from a variety of institutions, including the University of Edinburgh, King’s College London, Health Analytics Collaborative in Maryland, Imperial College London, Onaya Science in Peru, the University of Birmingham, the University of Exeter and others.
It was funded by Heroic Hearts Project, Heroic Hearts UK and Beckley Retreats, though the report says the groups “had no role in the design and conduct of the study, collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data, or preparation, review, and approval of the manuscript.”
The study comes as pressure builds at the state and federal levels to ease access to psychedelics, especially among veterans with PTSD.
The head of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) said earlier this month that he’s “particularly proud” of the administration’s work to promote research into psychedelics therapy, citing studies into substances like MDMA that show promising early results in the treatment of mental health conditions.
VA Secretary Doug Collins said the department does “some of the best research work and very specific research work,” noting that he recently visited a VA facility in New York City “discussing MDMA therapies, which have been phenomenal in working with those with [post-traumatic stress disorder] and traumatic brain injuries—these other issues that we have.”
Collins’s visit to the psychedelics research center came about a month after the VA secretary met with a military veteran who’s become an advocate for psilocybin access to discuss the therapeutic potential of psychedelic medicine for the veteran community.
Collins also briefly raised the issue in a Cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump in April.
The secretary also disclosed in April that he had an “eye-opening” talk with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about the therapeutic potential of psychedelic medicine. And Collins said 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.
Kennedy said last month that his agency is “absolutely committed” to expanding research on the benefits of psychedelic therapy and, alongside of the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is aiming to provide legal access to such substances for military veterans “within 12 months.”
During a recent Senate committee hearing, Collins separately reiterated his commitment to exploring the efficacy of psychedelic therapy to address serious mental health conditions that commonly afflict military veterans.
Meanwhile in May, bipartisan congressional lawmakers asked the VA head to meet with them to discuss ways to provide access to psychedelic medicine for military veterans.
In a letter sent to Collins, Reps. Lou Correa (D-CA) and Jack Bergman (R-MI)—co-chairs of the Congressional Psychedelic Advancing Therapies (PATH) Caucus—said they were “encouraged by your recent remarks about the importance of pursuing research into psychedelic treatments and other alternative treatments to improve Veterans’ care.”
Correa and Bergman separately introduced a bill in April to provide $30 million in funding annually to establish psychedelics-focused “centers for excellence” at VA facilities, where veterans could receive novel treatment involving substances like psilocybin, MDMA and ibogaine.
Bergman has also expressed optimism about the prospects of advancing psychedelics reform under Trump, arguing that the administration’s efforts to cut spending and the federal workforce will give agencies “spines” to tackle such complex issues.
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, VA’s Yehuda 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.
Image courtesy of CostaPPR.
