Sabrina Ramkellawan speaks in front of the Senate of Canada, Subcommittee on Veteran Affairs

OTTAWA, Sept 22, 2022 

AxialBridge is excited to announce that our COO and Co-Founder, Sabrina Ramkellawan, had the opportunity to speak in front of the Senate of Canada, Subcommittee on Veteran Affairs on behalf of her role as Board of Directors and Co-Chair at MAPS Canada. 

For full minutes of the meeting here, full video here

Sabrina Ramkellawan, Co-Chair, Board of Directors, Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, Opening Remarks: 

Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for having me here today to speak on this important topic. I am Co-Chair for the board of MAPS Canada. MAPS stands for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, which is committed to advancing psychedelic medicine by supporting multidisciplinary scientific research, advocating for drug policy reform, offering public education and supporting equitable access to legal and regulated psychedelic medicine in Canada.

I have worked as a registered nurse in a number of settings, including mental health, and I have worked directly with veterans and first responder populations throughout my career, and even specifically with medical cannabis. In addition, I have been conducting clinical trials for more than 20 years. My recent work focuses on supporting both psychedelic and cannabinoid clinical research.

We know that even with approved treatments for major depressive disorder, 34% to 46% of these patients do not adequately respond to treatment, and 40% to 60% of PTSD patients do not respond to SSRIs; also, other evidence-based, trauma-focused psychotherapies such as prolonged exposure and cognitive behavioural therapy result in many participants failing to respond or continuing to have significant symptoms, and dropout rates are high as well.

Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy has been the first promising treatment in the last 30 years since SSRIs were approved and they are now first-line therapies. Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy has demonstrated strong evidence in clinical trials, more specifically MDMA for PTSD and psilocybin for depression.

MDMA Phase 3 clinical trial results show 67% of participants who received three MDMA-assisted therapy sessions no longer qualified for a PTSD diagnosis, and 88% experienced a clinically meaningful reduction in symptoms. Second Phase 3 data has been completed just two weeks ago, and we are awaiting results and will be excited to share them in the near future.

Psilocybin Phase 2b clinical trial results show 30% of patients in the 25-milligram group were in remission at week three.

Our recommendations for research and access include: Conducting clinical trials with MDMA and psilocybin specifically in the Canadian veteran population that will help provide access to veterans, train practitioners and assess safety and efficacy, including health economics and cost-benefit analysis of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in comparison to the standard of care. Clinical trials are already happening in VA — Veterans Affairs — hospitals across the U.S.

A cost analysis of five MDMA trials concluded that the cost of treatment averaged just over US$11,000 per patient. Extrapolated to 1,000 patients over 30 years, it is projected to prevent 60 deaths, gain 4.9 quality-adjusted life years per patient and save just under US$133,000 per patient over the period of reduced physical and mental health care activity. Ideally, this kind of research should start as soon as possible with this new emerging medicine.

We also recommend increasing and improving access to legal, safe and medically supervised psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy for veterans. Currently, many veterans seeking these medicines outside of the legal framework — without regulated, trained and insured professionals — are being forced to break the law and, as Dr. Averill said, go outside North America to other countries to experience this. Others who are not able to gain access are missing an opportunity to relieve their suffering.

In Canada, we have two ways for legal access: through clinical trials and access to psychedelic medicines via Health Canada’s Special Access Program, or SAP. But this is case by case and subject to Health Canada approval and limited by health care practitioners willing to access SAP for their patients. MAPS Canada is starting a research study to assess the SAP from both the health care provider and patient perspective and to ascertain barriers and facilitators to accessing psychedelic medicine through that program. It’s also important for us to understand Veterans Affairs Canada’s role and process for providing emerging treatments to veterans, including how much evidence they need to add psychedelics to the list of allowable treatments. Thank you.