Rakesh Jetly, MD: The Pursuit of Personalized Medicine for PTSD

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is all too common for veterans, with many struggling to find the right medications to treat the underlying disease.

Around half of patients with PTSD do not respond to the first treatment option, forcing clinicians to move down the line to find other suitable options.

However, researchers are now moving forward with a new study testing low-dose psychosubstances as a potential treatment for this patient population.

In an interview with HCPLive®, Rakesh Jetly, MD, Head of the Center of Excellence on Mental Health, said one of the goals of the phase 2 study will be not only to test the safety and efficacy of the treatment, but also identify how it could help patients in other areas of life.

Because much of what veterans go through during combat causes long-lasting pain issues, there is the potential this treatment can help reduce the amount of veteran patients dependent on opioids for pain relief.

Another byproduct of the study testing psychedelics in PTSD patients is researchers may learn more about the brain and why it responds to certain treatments but not others.

The study could be another piece to the puzzle as researchers begin to try to implement new personalized medicine regimens for patients.