Ukrainian MP tells MEPs country should be test bed for psychedelics November 30, 2023 - Politico.eu
Dmytro Gurin said that therapies based on drugs such as MDMA could treat soaring rates of post-traumatic stress disorder.
With millions of Ukrainians suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from Russia’s ongoing invasion, one lawmaker is asking the EU to help his country become a leading research center for treatment with psychedelics.
Currently, the country's health ministry estimates that between 3 million and 4 million Ukrainians live with PTSD, but this figure could become much higher if the war persists. Last year, the ministry reported that as much as 57 percent of the population — or 25 million people — is at risk of developing the chronic mental health disorder.
“We have this catastrophic challenge ahead,” Dmytro Gurin, a Ukrainian MP in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Servant of the People party and member of the country’s health committee, told a meeting of MEPs at the European Parliament on Tuesday. “And such challenges, they need bold decisions.”
Researchers around the world are looking at the potential of treating post-traumatic stress disorder with psychedelic-assisted therapies, including treatments using MDMA, the chemical in the street drug ecstasy.
Gurin is pitching that Ukraine's large population of trauma sufferers means the country could become a research center for MDMA-assisted therapies. He'd like EU financial support for Ukraine to develop a nationwide clinical trial to test MDMA-assisted therapy as a first treatment for trauma, rather than as a last resort, as is normally recommended.
“We are forced to think if we can use psychedelic-assisted therapy as a first line,” he told the meeting, “because of the quantity of patients.”
The event — hosted by MEPs Tomáš Zdechovský (EPP) and MEP Radka Maxová (S&D) from the MEPs action group for the medical use of psychedelics — heard how MDMA has already shown great promise in helping PTSD patients in clinical trials. Australia has already authorized its use, while the U.S. could follow suit next year and the EU is looking into it.
A trial in Ukraine would not require a change in the law, Gurin said, but a decree from the Cabinet of ministers. There is already agreement between the ministries on areas from the production to the consumption of the psychedelic for research purposes, he said, suggesting that a decree might be passed.
But this isn’t the only hurdle for such a trial.
Uphill battle
There is also a staffing issue. Ukraine has a dire shortage of trained therapists. That’s in large part, Gurin said, because USSR rules stigmatized psychiatry, which has been hard to shake off.
“Today we have 13 trauma therapists who can work with psychedelic assisted therapy. … We need 300,” he said.
His solution is to set up a training center in the safe city of Uzhhorod, which borders Slovakia. From here, he said, Ukrainian therapists can be trained for Ukrainian cases: understanding the tortures and traumas of war.
But the bigger problem is likely to be buy in. There is strong political opposition against classified drugs being developed to treat physical and mental health conditions.
The parliament is currently debating a medical cannabis bill, which has faced pushback by the third largest opposition party, Batkivshchyna. The party is headed by former Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko, who publicly stated that a medical cannabis law would turn Ukraine into a European Colombia.
However, on November 22, the health committee recommended the bill for a second reading, recommending that the parliament adopt the final proposal.
Meanwhile, Gurin alludes to backing from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
"This summer Zelenskyy addressed the (Ukrainian) parliament … and decided that we need the best and newest technologies to deal with this trauma,” Gurin said.
And in the field of severe mental health conditions, psychedelics are the first new drugs in years to show promise.
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