New hope in treating PTSD with psychedelic drugs | Forensic Files

here's something you probably don't know as many as one in five veterans suffers
from ptsd post-traumatic stress disorder is a leading cause of suicide among vets but
david martin has word of a surprising treatment that could lead them out of the dark
i stab myself in the neck and the wrist with a knife and um i just wanted the pain to stop
a series of pulitzer prize-winning photographs captured the agony of former marine scott ostrom his life overwhelmed
by ptsd after two tours in iraq 12 years of nightmares panic attacks and failed relationships
a danger not only to himself but to others deep down i was angry so really i i think i was just looking for
a fight what were you angry about i was angry with myself i felt guilty for some of the things that i failed to do
when i was overseas failed to do how i watched my friend burn alive inside of a humvee
and the fire was too hot and i couldn't get to him so um i felt like i needed to be punished for
that you're being haunted by your a memory of something that happened to you rachel
yehuda of mount sinai hospital in new york has spent 30 years working with veterans and other victims of ptsd the
standard treatment for ptsd has been psychotherapy and there are two medications that are fda approved for
the treatment of ptsd both of which are antidepressants how effective is the treatment these
treatments tend not to really solve the problem for most people but they are better than nothing
desperate for relief scott ostrom answered a facebook ad seeking volunteers for an fda approved trial
using a psychedelic drug called mdma better known by its street name ecstasy it really did change my life come on
buddy in a short period of time in six months when i first heard about this i thought
to myself how could this possibly be a good idea psychedelics were illegal and designated
by our government as being of potential harm and no medical benefit then at the annual burning man festival
in nevada she met rick doblin i knew that mdma was great for ptsd in 1984. domlin heads a psychedelic
research organization called maps and for decades has been fighting laws which made psychedelics illegal when we think
now about how many people over the last 50 years could have been saved from suicide or depression if the
research hadn't been shut down it's a tragedy it was not until 2016 that the food and
drug administration authorized phase 3 trials for mdma the same kind of phase 3 trials covid
vaccines went through to prove they are safe and effective the results from the latest phase 3
trial of mdma were just astounding so these studies have they produce specific results two-thirds of the people that
were treated with a course of mdma no longer have ptsd would you call this a breakthrough i would absolutely call
this a breakthrough what does the fda think they've designated mdma-assisted psychotherapy as a breakthrough approach
what does that mean in terms of what you can do now well it doesn't mean you can start
taking mdma on your own it means that the data are so good that let's get this on a fast track for approval
but life on that fast track costs money the biggest obstacle really for us was raising the funds to do the research
because the pharmaceutical companies were not interested the major foundations were not interested it was
all too controversial thank you enter bob parsons a maverick billionaire who first took psychedelics
three years ago how much of a difference did psychedelics make in your life the quality of my life has increased
immeasurably never a good student parsons joined the marines at 17 and was sent to vietnam
a month later he was wounded this is a picture of me in the field hospital it was the last he saw of
combat but the war continued to haunt him i was completely different guy that came home than the guy that left
the guy that came home he had a short temper never felt like he belonged no matter
where he was or who he was with was it getting better was it getting worse i believe it was getting worse somebody
would ask me if i served in vietnam i started crying parsons made his fortune from godaddy go
daddy.com an internet company which he turned into must-see tv with risque super bowl ads
now you're a billionaire what are you going to do with all that money i'm going to do what i can to get
psychedelics approved for therapeutic use parsons has donated more than seven million dollars to psychedelic research
under the influence of mdma scott ostrom was able to actually visualize his inner demons this spinning
black ball started to open itself up to me in different layers like an onion and then each layer
revealed like a new memory and it was almost like the layers were just opening and opening
and opening at the center he found a part of him he calls the bully it was a terribly
frightening creature the bully is basically the person you had to become in order to
survive two tours in iraq that's right that's who the marine corps trains you to be a fighter and a killer
and that's who i had to become to survive those deployments with the aid of two psychotherapists he
was able to come to terms with it after those three mdma sessions i haven't had a nightmare about the war
since do you suffer panic attacks anymore no do you have any thoughts of suicide
no but like a drunk getting sober he can't undo all the damage done all the years lost
you know i spent over a decade pushing people away and making my life harder on myself and not
loving myself so as far as dealing with the combat part of my ptsd we were successful in that
but i i still think i can be a better person i still think there's room to grow mdma may be a breakthrough but it's
still a trial drug not likely to be available to the estimated 1 million veterans suffering from ptsd
until 2024 what the breakthrough means to me is that we have a meaningful way to
spend our time now so that we can bring a new paradigm of care to the people that need it most it just means that
there's real hope out there that may really end up being a game changer for people that have suffered for way too
long you

Some service members and others suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) have had little relief from traditional anti-depressants used in conjunction with psychotherapy. Now, a recent FDA-approved trial using a psychedelic drug called MDMA – better known by its street name, ecstasy – has shown promising results. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin talks with a former Marine whose two tours in Iraq presaged twelve years of nightmares, panic attacks and failed relationships – and who now finds hope.

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Brief Summary

Veterans discuss transformative MDMA therapy for PTSD, highlighting its potential as a breakthrough treatment.

Key points

MDMA: A Surprising Treatment. MDMA, known as ecstasy, shows promise in treating PTSD for veterans.
Breakthrough Designation by FDA. The FDA has designated MDMA-assisted psychotherapy as a breakthrough approach for PTSD treatment.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I just wanted the pain to stop.

0:26WatchNov 14, 2021

Tension

60/ 100Some tension

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