Symposium Background and Overview

There is a mental health crisis and an alarming increase in the incidence of suicides in Veterans, highlighting limited effective treatments for this population. Currently available pharmacological and psychotherapeutic treatments in the US demonstrate limited efficacy in addressing the spectrum of psychiatric symptoms in Veterans. Therefore, it is essential that novel and potentially curative treatment approaches are developed that can address the underlying etiology and spectrum of symptoms in the Veteran population. Psychedelic drug-assisted therapies demonstrate potential as transdiagnostic treatment approaches but are not FDA approved for use. Nevertheless, Veterans are seeking out such treatments in international locations where these treatments are legal. This symposium will provide the background and context for understanding why and where Veterans are seeking out psychedelic therapies outside the US, followed by data from retrospective and prospective studies that describe the preliminary short- and long-term outcomes of this treatment for mental health and substance misuse problems. Psychological mechanisms of the treatment will also be explored and discussed. Collectively, these findings suggest that psychedelic therapies may be promising transdiagnostic tools for treating the spectrum of neuropsychiatric symptoms in Veterans, but more research is needed in controlled laboratory settings in the US.