If allowed, psilocybin treatment could save veterans’ lives

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Juliana Mercer is a Marine Corps veteran and executive director of Healing Breakthrough.

I graduated from Marine Corps boot camp just a couple of weeks before Sept. 11, 2001. That day changed everything. The country was scared, the months that followed were filled with uncertainty, and I had no idea how profoundly 9/11 would change the trajectory of my own life.

I went on to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan. Between those deployments, I worked at the Wounded Warrior Battalion in San Diego, supporting Marines as they rebuilt their lives, which was one of the greatest honors of my life. What I did not understand was how deeply I was absorbing their injuries, grief, and the losses experienced by their families.

That became clearer when I later deployed to Afghanistan, during one of the deadliest periods of the war for Marines. I purposefully stopped counting the flag-draped coffins I saluted on the airfield as they were loaded onto planes to return home, swallowing my grief so I could return to the mission.

I became paralyzed watching young Marines prepare to go outside the base, thinking about their families and whether they would see them again. I also began hallucinating that wounded Marines I had cared for in San Diego were walking toward me in the war zone. I now recognize that, alongside my own PTSD, I was carrying caregiver fatigue and secondary PTSD from caring for wounded Marines.

Over time, I felt less and less emotion. With every loss, every wounded Marine whose pain I carried, and every young Marine I watched leave family behind, I swallowed more of what I felt just to keep functioning. I focused on the mission and kept moving forward for years, until everything I had buried became impossible to ignore.

I did not recognize what was happening until five years after returning home. I sought help. Therapy helped me feel less alone, but my symptoms continued to affect my life and relationships.

My experience is not unique. An estimated 870,000 veterans receiving Department of Veterans Affairs health care were diagnosed with PTSD in 2024. Since 9/11, nearly 150,000 veterans have died by suicide. In 2023 alone, we lost 6,398 -- an average of 17 each day. Many continue searching for relief after available treatments have failed them.

That is why veterans are cautiously hopeful about psychedelic treatments.

The research has been encouraging. Studies of psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression show significant reductions in depressive symptoms, with up to one-third of patients achieving remission in some trials. Research involving veterans with PTSD found that 75% were in remission one month after completing psilocybin treatment.

After years of suffering and exploring conventional treatments, I followed the research before pursuing psilocybin treatment myself. During that experience, I was finally able to access and feel the grief I had spent decades burying. It did not erase what happened or the memories of the Marines I cared for and lost. Rather it changed my relationship with those memories. They no longer controlled my life in the same way.

I woke up reconnected to the authentic self I had lost and was able to feel joy and love again.

No treatment works for everyone, and psychedelic medicines are not a cure-all. But veterans pursuing them are not looking for shortcuts. Many have spent years doing everything the medical system asked while continuing to search for relief.

Our government is beginning to recognize both the urgency and the potential of new approaches. A few years ago, the Food and Drug Administration granted Breakthrough Therapy designation to psilocybin and other psychedelic programs, recognizing preliminary evidence that these treatments may substantially improve upon available options.

This year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to accelerate research and reduce barriers to psychedelic treatments for serious mental illness. Federal research and regulatory work has also continued to advance. VA is conducting clinical trials of MDMA treatment for veterans with PTSD and alcohol use disorder and psilocybin treatment for treatment-resistant depression. In July, FDA finalized long-awaited guidance for clinical trials involving psychedelic drugs, building on draft guidance first issued in 2023.

These actions matter, but research alone is not enough. If these treatments receive FDA approval, the health care system must be ready to deliver them responsibly -- through timely FDA review, prompt Drug Enforcement Administration action, a trained clinical workforce, clear standards and safeguards, referral pathways, and VA facilities prepared to provide care regardless of where a veteran lives.

Scientific progress will mean little if the systems needed to translate it into care are not ready.

Our country asks a great deal of those who serve. If evidence demonstrates that these treatments are safe and effective, veterans should not wait years longer because Washington failed to prepare for success.