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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has killed tens of hundreds of Ukrainian troopers and civilians, and injured a whole bunch of hundreds extra. However the warfare has additionally taken a much less seen toll, with hundreds of thousands affected by acute PTSD. Now a examine co-authored at UC Berkeley proposes that use of the psychedelic MDMA, beneath shut medical supervision, might carry reduction to hundreds of thousands of sufferers—with fewer therapists, decrease prices and higher outcomes than standard care.
Within the new examine revealed in World Medical and Well being Coverage, a U.S.-Ukrainian analysis staff led by Berkeley well being economist Elliot Marseille concluded that the managed therapeutic use of MDMA together with group remedy might save tens of hundreds of lives, whereas permitting an enormous inhabitants of survivors to be more healthy and extra productive. That might save Ukrainian society billions of {dollars} in long-term well being care prices and misplaced productiveness, the staff concluded.
“Ukraine is facing enormous levels of PTSD,” Marseille mentioned in an interview. “From a public health perspective and from an economic perspective, MDMA-assisted therapy can be a viable option. It makes sense in addressing the public health crisis, and makes economic sense.”
Co-author Oleh Orlov, a co-founder of Heal Ukraine Trauma, mentioned the magnitude of post-traumatic stress dysfunction (PTSD) in his nation is sort of inconceivable. “Even I, living here, catch myself doubting the scale,” he mentioned. “But that doubt isn’t because the numbers are wrong. It’s because we’ve become so used to living this way. People who return from abroad often notice it more clearly—how much Ukrainians suppress or normalize what they’re going through. The full psychological toll is likely far larger than any of us realize.”
Orlov is a co-founder of the Ukrainian Psychedelic Analysis Affiliation, and is the deputy director for analysis and experimentation on the Yarmachenko Institute of Particular Training and Psychology in Ukraine’s Nationwide Academy of Academic Sciences. Marseille is the director of Berkeley’s Collaborative for the Economics of Psychedelics. A 3rd co-author, Ukrainian medical researcher Olga Chernoloz, is on the school of the College of Ottawa in Canada, and has written extensively about psychedelic therapies.
Marseille emphasised that many authorized, political and cultural challenges stay to be addressed, and that years may cross earlier than Ukraine is ready for large-scale medical use of MDMA. However as described within the analysis, it might be essentially the most revolutionary and impressive focused, therapeutic use of MDMA ever tried.
An pressing want for revolutionary remedy
The novel intervention is justified, the co-authors argue, by the extent of struggling in a inhabitants that has been ravaged by Russia’s invasion, continuous bombardment and warfare crimes. Ukraine’s inhabitants earlier than the Russian invasion was about 44 million, a bit of bigger than California’s. Right this moment, almost 3.5 years after the primary assault, some 6.4 million Ukrainians are struggling extreme, persistent post-traumatic stress, the authors estimate.
Individuals with PTSD are topic to a variety of impacts, from insomnia and anxiousness to melancholy, substance abuse and suicide.
Orlov mentioned Ukrainians uncovered to violence and atrocities have “described horrific experiences—things so extreme that I realized no standard trauma-focused therapy could help without additional support. Even as a trained therapist, I struggled to believe conventional methods would suffice.”
Standard therapies are solely partially efficient, the authors defined. They cited research displaying that just about half of PTSD sufferers fail to indicate important enchancment. In the meantime, a sophisticated medical trial with sufferers within the U.S., Canada and Israel confirmed that after MDMA therapy, 67% of sufferers now not met PTSD standards; amongst sufferers given intensive psychotherapy plus a placebo, simply 32% confirmed such enchancment.
In latest months, the federal government has moved to facilitate analysis and affected person entry to different psychedelic-assisted therapies, notably MDMA. This spring, the Multidisciplinary Affiliation for Psychedelic Research labored with the Ukrainian Psychedelic Analysis Affiliation to coach almost 60 Ukrainian therapists in MDMA remedy protocols.
Reframing the connection to trauma
The therapeutic energy of MDMA seems to lie in the way it adjustments the mind. Based on Marseille, the consequences of the drug are complicated. In easy phrases, the drug acts to quiet the amygdala, an almond-sized construction that could be a heart for processing emotion, together with worry and anxiousness. This permits for what psychologists name “fear extinction” and helps emotional connectedness and enhanced introspection.
“So you’re in this relaxed, open, accepting state of mind,” he defined. “In the therapeutic context, you’re able to confront the traumatic event, whatever it is, and allow it to be. Standing there, you can reframe your relationship to it.”
As a result of educated Ukrainian therapists are briefly provide, the researchers say, the nation’s medical and social programs must pioneer one other innovation: combining MDMA therapy with group remedy. When MDMA is used therapeutically within the U.S., Marseille mentioned, there are usually two clinicians for each affected person whereas the MDMA is run, and in addition within the non-drug periods earlier than and after..
In Ukraine, he mentioned, medical personnel must decide the most effective mixture of particular person and group remedy to make extra environment friendly use of restricted workers. Even in america and in different high-income nations there’s a transfer to experiment with group psychedelic remedy.
The economics of MDMA remedy are interesting, too. The brand new analysis concludes that by enhancing well being, the MDMA remedy would reduce well being care bills and enhance productiveness.
Treating simply 1,000 sufferers would value $1.1 million, however forestall some 20 deaths and yield 717 “quality-adjusted life-years,” a health-economics time period for human years of excellent well being.
If Ukraine have been capable of deal with half of all PTSD sufferers over the span of a decade, the brand new report concludes, the care might save 48,000 lives, whereas producing over 1.5 million quality-adjusted life years and $5.6 billion in societal financial savings.
“Ukraine has been so bold… so courageous and so innovative,” Marseille mentioned. “They have earned the admiration of any fair-minded person who looks at how they have responded to the attack from Russia. Really, it’s not for me here in the U.S. to urge the Ukrainians to do anything, but nevertheless, I would urge Ukraine’s medical and public health establishment to be just as bold and courageous in accelerating the adoption of this promising new public mental health intervention.”
“We can’t spend years trying treatments that don’t work,” added Orlov. “MDMA-assisted therapy offers real hope, especially for those who haven’t responded to existing treatments. If we don’t adopt more effective solutions now, we risk losing precious time, lives and the chance to rebuild our society in a healthy, resilient way.”
Extra data:
Elliot Marseille et al, The Potential Financial and Public Well being Influence of MDMA‐Assisted Group Remedy for PTSD in Ukraine, World Medical & Well being Coverage (2025). DOI: 10.1002/wmh3.70039
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College of California – Berkeley
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Broad use of psychedelic MDMA might ease devastating psychological trauma in Ukraine, examine says (2025, August 28)
retrieved 28 August 2025
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