[Field Notes] The Magnet, Dropout Rates, and Utah Tries Something Interesting
Mental health news round-up for the week of June 25th
This week leaned heavy toward trauma and veterans — partly because that’s my lane, and partly because a genuinely big PTSD trial landed. Let’s get into it.
Not All PTSD Therapies Keep People in the Room
A meta-analysis published in Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy and summarized by the APA looked at something the efficacy studies tend to gloss over: dropout rates. About a quarter of U.S. service members and veterans who start psychotherapy for PTSD quit before finishing — and the therapies with the strongest evidence aren’t always the ones people stay in.
The finding matters because “this treatment works” and “people can tolerate this treatment” are two different claims, and the gap between them is where a lot of real-world recovery falls apart. The authors frame it as a question of which protocols are easier to actually stick with, not which ones win on paper.
A Targeted Magnet Boosted Combat-PTSD Recovery
The headline study this week: researchers led by UT Health San Antonio published a randomized trial in JAMA Network Open testing a precision form of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) — “navigated TMS,” which uses MRI and a robot to aim the magnetic pulses at the exact spot in each person’s brain — added on top of standard trauma-focused psychotherapy.
The trial enrolled 119 active-duty service members and veterans with combat PTSD (92% rated severe or extremely severe) in a 30-day residential program. One group got navigated TMS for 20 days; the other got a convincing sham. A month after treatment, 85% of the active-TMS group showed clinically significant symptom relief, versus just under 60% in the sham group. At three months, 73% of the active group still showed improvement, versus under 30% of the sham group.
TMS is already FDA-approved for depression and OCD but not for PTSD, and the researchers themselves note this is a single residential-setting trial that needs replication.
Utah Opens a Narrow Door for Psychedelic Research
In March, Utah’s governor signed HB390, the Veterans PTSD Clinical Research Amendment, authorizing a state-funded clinical study of psychedelic-assisted therapy for veterans with treatment-resistant PTSD, centered at the Huntsman Mental Health Institute.
The VA Is Rolling Out an MDMA Study
Relatedly, the Department of Veterans Affairs is launching a study of MDMA-assisted therapy for veterans with severe PTSD. Federal officials framed it as part of a broader push to fast-track research on therapies with FDA Breakthrough Therapy designation.
MDMA-assisted therapy has had a rocky regulatory road, the FDA declined an earlier application in 2024 over trial-design concerns, and “the VA is studying it” is not “the VA endorses it.” This is research getting funded, which is genuinely good — and it’s also still research.
A few of this week’s stories touch on PTSD, suicidality, and trauma treatment. If you’re a veteran or service member in crisis, the Veterans Crisis Line is available by dialing 988 then pressing 1, or texting 838255.
See you next week. Take good care of yourself.
