Combat veteran says psychedelic therapy saved his life

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is funding its first large, five-site clinical trial testing psilocybin for military veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The study represents a major milestone in federal research into psychedelic-assisted therapies as veterans and medical researchers seek faster relief for treatment-resistant mental health conditions.

For many combat veterans, traditional treatments offered through the VA have proved ineffective at addressing severe post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

In response, advocacy groups and military veterans have turned to experimental treatments involving psychedelic compounds such as psilocybin, ibogaine, and five-MeO-DMT, prompting academic institutions and federal authorities to investigate their therapeutic potential.

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Retired U.S. Army Sgt. Maj. Chris Boardman served 25 years in the military and was among the first troops deployed to Afghanistan following the Sept. 11 attacks.

As part of special operations forces tasked with targeting Al Qaeda, Boardman endured a decade of back-to-back deployments that took a severe physical and emotional toll.

“You’re jumping out of helicopters, you know you’re kicking in doors,” Boardman said. “You’re doing all these brutal things to your body, and it takes a toll.”

Boardman retired from active duty in 2011 and subsequently faced a severe mental health crisis. After exhausting available treatment options at the VA and resorting to self-medication, he reached a point of dangerous distress and suicidal ideation.

“I was just cutting all of the markers of someone who’s about to commit suicide,” Boardman said. “It’s looking back on it now, and that’s what scares me the most. It’s knowing how, how, how incredibly close I was, and I didn’t even know it.”

Seeking help, Boardman connected with Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions, an organization known as VETS that helps former service members access safe psychedelic therapies. Through a grant from VETS, Boardman traveled from his home in Salisbury, N.C., to Mexico to receive ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT treatments.

Alan Davis, a researcher at Ohio State University, has studied veterans traveling abroad for alternative medical interventions. Davis tracked participants—including Boardman—before and after receiving ibogaine and five-MeO-DMT care in Mexico, publishing the study’s findings last month.

“They were reporting significant improvement in their PTSD symptoms, their mental functioning ... [and] for the most part, people were reporting that those improvements were sustained through nine months,” Davis said.

Davis has also led research into psilocybin, the active psychedelic compound found in magic mushrooms, to determine its effect on severe post-traumatic stress disorder.

“What we found is that 75% of the veterans were in complete remission from their severe treatment-resistant PTSD after the treatment was concluded,” Davis said.

Those findings helped pave the way for federal clinical studies inside the VA system. Lori Davis, principal investigator for the VA PIVOT trial, is leading the new five-site psilocybin study out of Alabama.

“This area with psychedelic medicines is frankly one of the most exciting, innovative, novel treatments that I’ve seen,” Lori Davis said. “We’re all excited about it, really excited, because it could mean great relief very fast of suffering and those results, those short-term results, look very promising.”

For Boardman, the psychedelic therapy proved life-saving, restoring a sense of stability and everyday peace.

“There are many times where I can just sit on my couch at home and be perfectly happy. I just sit there, and I just enjoy it,” Boardman said.

When asked whether he believes he would have survived without the treatment, Boardman acknowledged its impact directly. “I’d already be here? Most definitely,” Boardman said.

At the federal level, political interest in expanding treatment options has grown. President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at expanding research into psychedelic drugs, including ibogaine, and accelerating approval timelines for clinical studies.

Meanwhile, state-level initiatives have encountered hurdles, including a North Carolina bill to study psychedelic-assisted therapies that stalled in the statehouse.