VA touts psilocybin trial for vets, but relief could take time

Audio By Carbonatix

(The Center Square) – The Department of Veterans Affairs is touting a new psilocybin trial as relief for veterans with treatment-resistant depression, but the study won't finish until 2031, and any treatment it yields would come later still.

VA announced the trial, called PIVOT, this month, with Secretary Doug Collins saying it would "offer meaningful relief for those who have worn the uniform." But the study's federal registration lists a primary completion date of December 2030 and a study completion date of June 2031. Even then, psilocybin generally could not be prescribed to veterans outside research unless the Food and Drug Administration approves it and its Schedule I status is resolved under federal law.

VA has not said what the trial will cost. Its August announcement listed five study sites, two psilocybin doses and a target of 240 veterans, but no price tag. The trial's federal record lists the VA Office of Research and Development as its sponsor. VA did not respond to questions about the trial's cost or the amount of VA funding committed to it.

The trial will enroll veterans with treatment-resistant major depression, with or without post-traumatic stress disorder, at VA facilities in Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Portland, Oregon; Philadelphia; and Seattle. It is a Phase 3 study, the final stage of testing before a drug maker can seek FDA approval. Participants will receive two dosing sessions with psychological support, and researchers will track their depression symptoms over six months.

VA's announcement tied the trial to an executive order President Donald Trump signed in April directing federal agencies to expand psychedelic research. But the study was registered with the government in November 2025, five months before that order, and the registry shows only minor updates to the study's status and eligibility criteria since.

It is the second time this year VA has presented psychedelic research as a fresh initiative under the executive order. In May, VA announced an MDMA-assisted therapy trial for veterans that had received federal funding in December 2024, more than a year before Trump signed the order.

A VA report published this year found that 6,398 veterans died by suicide in 2023, the most recent year available, while the suicide rate per 100,000 veterans rose for both men and women that year.

Trump's April executive order cited the persistent toll of veteran suicide, more than 6,000 a year for over two decades, in calling for accelerated research into new treatments.