The Economist, January 15th, 2024
[Illustration: Alberto Miranda]
Psychedelics can help them to overcome the trauma, and possibly also to fight.
Ihor Kholodilo shouldn't have survived. The military psychologist was on an operation to evacuate comrades in 2023 when the jeep he was riding in was hit by a Russian tank. He was practically unable to communicate. Operations saved his heart and eyesight. But the doctors were unable to correct his stuttering and slurred speech. He tried all kinds of radical therapies, but nothing worked. Until he met Vladislav Matrenitsky, a pioneer of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, who asked him an unexpected question: would he be willing to try ketamine?
Mr. Kholodilo didn't have high expectations, but the results were extraordinary. His stuttering disappeared after just one session. After five, he was practically back to normal. He stopped having nightmares and feeling afraid in everyday life. Ketamine therapy wasn't easy, he says, but it allowed him to resolve the trauma that caused the symptoms: "I had a life again... I felt light, blessed."
This drug has been authorized in Ukraine as a treatment for mental illness since 2017. But now soldiers with war trauma are being treated with ketamine to "relieve emotional pressure".
