on PinterestThe Trump administration has directed the FDA to fast-track psychedelic therapies like ibogaine to treat PTSD and other mental health disorders.
on PinterestThe Trump administration has directed the FDA to fast-track psychedelic therapies like ibogaine to treat PTSD and other mental health disorders. farmer images/Getty Images
- A sweeping executive order aims to fast-track psychedelic therapies, putting drugs like ibogaine in the national spotlight.
- The policy expands research funding, accelerates FDA review pathways, and opens access routes for patients with serious mental illness.
- The executive order explicitly calls out ibogaine therapy, despite limited research and serious questions about its safety profile.
- The move coincides with Trump’s recent call to reclassify medical cannabis as a less dangerous drug, marking major shifts in national policy around controlled substances.
President Trump signed an executive order aimed at expanding research and improving access to psychedelic drug therapies.
The April 18 order also aims to streamline and expedite the Food and Drug Administration’s approval process for certain high-priority treatments.
The Trump administration has touted the executive order as an important step toward addressing the nation’s mental health crisis, especially among U.S. veterans, who bear an outsized of that burden.
A diverse coalition, including psychedelic research organizations, medical professionals, veterans groups, and podcaster Joe Rogan, has publicly celebrated the decision.
The order also allocates $50 million to support state-level psychedelic research. The shift in policy coincides with Trump’s recent move to reclassify medical cannabis as a less dangerous drug.
Matthew Johnson, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University, called the decision “welcome news,” adding that it is “building upon decades of science.”
Psychedelics are a class of drugs that act on the body’s serotonin system. They can produce well-known effects, including changes to visual perception, hallucinations, an altered sense of self, and feelings of insight or connection. Primary examples of psychedelics include LSD, psilocybin (“magic mushrooms”), and DMT.
Over the past several decades, research into psychedelic therapies has moved from the counterculture fringes to the White House. Today, psychedelics are actively being studied for a number of 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 boldest federal actions on psychedelic drugs to date.
However, it is also being met with caution by some experts who expressed concern that expedited FDA approval of experimental therapies could be harmful to 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, 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, serious mental illness with psychedelics
Trump’s executive order is intended to target “the burden of suicide and serious mental illness rates in Ameica” through a number of levers involving research, access, and FDA review.
Here are the main points:
The executive order directs the FDA to provide Commissioner’s National Priority Vouchers to eligible psychedelic therapies that have received Breakthrough Therapy designation for serious mental illnesses.
Breakthrough Therapy is an expanded Fast Track designation
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