iStock / Getty Images Plus In April, around 700 veterans, active-duty troops and Gold Star families made the trip to Camp Pendleton in California for the 20th reunion of those who participated in the Battle of Ramadi. As I looked out over the crowd of men I had commanded in Iraq, I saw the faces of people I am proud to have served alongside, mentored and built lasting relationships with.

But as the reunion continued and I spoke individually with many of the battalion’s members, instead of building on the triumphs of 2004, I heard stories of lives affected by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that commonly included troubled marriages, substance abuse and turbulent post-service lives. While this was not spoken of as a complaint, these Marines were clearly hoping for help.

Speaking to them at the reunion, they asked me a simple question: “Sir, we joined the Corps and consider ourselves Marines for life. We never questioned our orders, nor the missions that you assigned, but now nobody is answers the [radio] net when we call for help.”

Americans are suffering from a national PTSD crisis, and those who are suffering the most are our veterans. Thirteen million Americans suffer from PTSD, the majority of whom are veterans or survivors of sexual or domestic abuse. PTSD is one of the few psychiatric disorders that accurately predicts the transition from thinking about suicide to making a suicide attempt, killing up to 16,000 veterans each year .

Yet there have been no new FDA-approved PTSD treatments for nearly 25 years.

However, in 2017 the FDA designated midomafetamine , more commonly known as MDMA, as a “breakthrough therapy” because of clinically demonstrated evidence in treating the root causes of PTSD. One study found that after just three sessions of MDMA-assisted therapy (MDMA-AT), 67 percent of participants no longer met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD.

Despite the promising results, an FDA advisory committee recently declined to recommend MDMA-assisted therapy as a treatment for PTSD. The committee voted 10-1 that the benefits of the therapy don’t outweigh the risks — even while clinical studies showed clear promise — cherry-picking small […]

How the FDA can help American veterans suffering from PTSD