Trump Signs Executive Order to Speed Up Psychedelic Treatments for PTSD and Mental Illness

President Trump has signed an executive order designed to expand research and make it easier for patients to access psychedelic drug therapies.

The order, signed on April 18, also aims to speed up the Food and Drug Administration’s approval process for certain high-priority treatments.

The Trump administration says the order is a major step toward addressing the nation’s mental health crisis. This is especially true for U.S. veterans, who face a much higher burden of mental health problems.

A wide range of groups — including psychedelic research organizations, doctors, veterans’ groups, and podcaster Joe Rogan — have publicly supported the decision.

The order also sets aside $50 million to help fund state-level research on psychedelics. This policy change comes shortly after Trump moved to reclassify medical cannabis as a less dangerous drug.

Matthew Johnson, PhD, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University, called the decision “welcome news.” He said it builds on “decades of science.”

Psychedelics are drugs that affect the body’s serotonin system. They can change how people see things, cause hallucinations, alter a person’s sense of self, and create feelings of insight or connection. Common examples include LSD, psilocybin (found in “magic mushrooms”), and DMT.

Over the last several decades, research on psychedelic therapies has moved from the fringes of counterculture to the White House. Today, scientists are studying psychedelics for many mental health conditions, including substance misuse, alcohol use disorder, depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The president’s executive order is one of the most aggressive federal actions on psychedelic drugs ever taken.

But some experts are cautious. They worry that fast-tracking FDA approval for experimental therapies could harm patients.

“It’s important to explore the use of psychedelics to treat [hard-to-treat] disorders like PTSD, that’s completely reasonable,” said Richard Friedman, MD, a psychiatrist and director of the Psychopharmacology Clinic at Weill Cornell Medicine.

“What we don’t want to do is speed up the testing and evaluation of drugs if it means that we’re giving short shrift to the rigorous analysis of safety,” Friedman told Healthline.

Targeting suicide and serious mental illness with psychedelics

Trump’s executive order aims to reduce “the burden of suicide and serious mental illness rates in America.” It does this through several approaches involving research, access, and FDA review.

Here are the main points:

The order directs the FDA to offer Commissioner’s National Priority Vouchers to eligible psychedelic therapies that have already received Breakthrough Therapy designation for serious mental illnesses.

Breakthrough Therapy is an expanded Fast Track program. It is designed to speed up the development of drugs that show early evidence of being much better than existing treatments.

The voucher program is meant to shorten the FDA’s review time. A process that usually takes six months or more could be cut to one or two months.

Together, these two programs could greatly speed up the development and approval of high-priority psychedelic therapies that have promising data.

Next, the order aims to expand psychedelic research by giving $50 million through the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). This money will match state investments in psychedelic research. The order also requires the FDA, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the private sector to work together to increase interest and participation in clinical trials.

For patients, the order highlights the Right to Try Act. This federal law lets eligible patients with life-threatening conditions try investigational drugs outside of clinical trials.

A White House fact sheet says experimental psychedelic therapies are included under the Right to Try Act, as long as they “have met basic safety requirements.”

Even though psychedelic therapy drugs like psilocybin, MDMA, and ibogaine are still illegal Schedule I drugs, the executive order prepares for possible rescheduling based on their therapeutic potential.

According to the White House, the order will tell the Attorney General to get ready to reschedule specific drugs “as soon as possible,” after Phase 3 clinical trials are completed successfully.

“In most places, psychedelic possession is still a felony. The drug war on psychedelics is not over,” Johnson said.

The promise and perils of ibogaine

There is also the issue of one specific drug — the only one named in the executive order: ibogaine.

Ibogaine is a naturally occurring psychoactive compound. It comes from the roots of the Tabernanthe iboga, a shrub native to Central Africa.

Ibogaine has become a popular cause among veteran groups. They say it has life-changing effects on people with PTSD and substance use disorder.

“Many of these individuals have essentially made it their life’s mission to send their fellow vets down [to Mexico] to get access to ibogaine clinics and treatment, as well as sowing the seeds in the United States to kind of move things along so we can get that approved here,” Johnson said.

Famous people, including former Texas Governor Rick Perry and Robert O’Neill (the former Navy SEAL who killed Osama Bin Laden), have become strong supporters of ibogaine therapy. So has Joe Rogan, the most popular podcaster in the United States and a well-known psychedelic advocate.

In fact, it was Rogan’s text message to President Trump about ibogaine that sparked the administration’s sweeping executive order on psychedelic therapies.

Studies have mostly focused on using ibogaine to treat opioid use disorder, where it has shown promising results.

Research is also moving forward in other areas of mental health. In one of the most notable studies on ibogaine, researchers at Stanford found that ibogaine therapy had strong effects on PTSD, depression, and anxiety symptoms in U.S. combat veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI).

The treatment had an immediate impact on mood and function in several areas of mental health. Before treatment, the average disability rating of the veterans was more than 30. One month after treatment, it dropped to just 5.1 — a score that no longer indicates disability.

Other areas also improved. Veterans saw noticeable improvements in depression (87% reduction), PTSD symptoms (88% reduction), and anxiety (81% reduction).

However, the trial was small — only 30 participants. While there were no serious side effects in that trial, the safety profile of ibogaine is a major concern for some experts.

The problem, according to experts, is that despite strong support from many in Trump’s circle, research on ibogaine is much more limited than on other psychedelic therapies. There are also serious concerns about its safety.

“In this field, in terms of FDA-approved trials, there’s been far more work and more advanced-stage work with psilocybin. And you could say the same thing for MDMA. Ibogaine is at a very different stage, in part because it’s been a more difficult challenge to get funding for the research and to get approval because it does have some additional safety concerns,” Johnson said.

Notably, while other psychedelics like psilocybin and MDMA have already