IMA President and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Joseph Varon joined Fox Noticias host Julie Banderas to discuss President Trump’s recent executive order reducing federal restrictions on psychedelic therapies for serious mental illness. The order targets conditions like depression, PTSD, and addiction, with veterans among the populations most likely to benefit. In 2023 alone, nearly 6,400 American veterans died by suicide, with the highest rates among those between 18 and 34.
While Dr. Varon welcomed the move as a long-overdue opening for treatments that could help patients with limited options, he stressed that the work ahead requires scientific rigor and full transparency. Researchers need to study these therapies systematically and report the good, the bad, and the ugly before declaring them effective. The worst path forward, he argued, would be doing nothing while patients continue to suffer.
Check out these related resources from IMA below, followed by the full segment transcript.
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Transcript
This segment originally aired in Spanish on Fox Noticias and has been translated to English. The Oval Office clip with President Trump and Joe Rogan is preserved in their original English.
Julie Banderas: Welcome back to Fox Noticias. We turn now to Washington, DC, where a new White House initiative is transforming the fight against serious mental illness. This past Saturday, President Trump signed an executive order to reduce restrictions and expand access to psychedelic therapies, targeting conditions like depression, addiction, and PTSD. This could be a life-changing opportunity for thousands of Americans, especially our veterans. In 2023 alone, nearly 6,400 veterans died by suicide, with the highest rates among those between 18 and 34. But this wasn’t originally Trump’s idea. In a surprise Oval Office appearance, podcaster Joe Rogan voiced his support for the initiative. It was actually his request that led the President to consider accelerating federal review of these psychedelic medications.
President Trump: In many cases, these experimental treatments have shown life-changing potential for those suffering from severe mental illness and depression, including our cherished veterans.
Joe Rogan: These drugs are illegal not because they’re harmful, they’re illegal because of the 1970 Controlled Substances Act. We’re free of that now, thanks to all these people that you see next to me, and thanks to President Trump.
Julie Banderas: Dr. Joseph Varon, President and Chief Medical Officer of the Independent Medical Alliance, joins me now to discuss this. Thank you for speaking with us. Let me start by asking: what’s your view on the President’s effort to expand the use of psychedelic drugs?
Dr. Joseph Varon: First of all, thank you for the invitation. Look, there’s no question that any effort to find a therapy that will improve the mental health of Americans — and especially our veterans — is important, whatever it may be. I think the effort the President is making is valid and worth doing, but it has to be done in a scientific and transparent way.
Julie Banderas: And how could this move impact mental health treatment?
Dr. Joseph Varon: From what I’ve seen of the existing studies, there’s a lot of speculation that these treatments will be very effective and could help many patients. But you have to study them systematically and make sure, as I was saying, that everything is transparent. You have to see the good, the bad, and the ugly of these therapies. And because they’re relatively inexpensive medications, this could reach a very large number of people.
Julie Banderas: So what do you think about the President accelerating the research and approval of these therapies for conditions like PTSD, depression, and addiction?
Dr. Joseph Varon: Knowing that we have a real epidemic in the United States of addiction, depression, and post-traumatic stress, what the President is doing is exactly what any leader who genuinely believes in improving the health of their constituents should do.
Julie Banderas: How could this be a major shift in mental health treatment, especially for veterans, as the President said?
Dr. Joseph Varon: The first thing this does is give you the opportunity to use these medications. That’s the starting point — it gives you the chance to treat something you normally wouldn’t be allowed to treat. And once we have that, we’ll be able to run prospective studies that tell us whether these really work — whether all the hype we’re hearing about how wonderful these medications are actually holds up. So the fact that we’re being given permission to start treating patients who are struggling with serious mental health problems is a very good thing.
Julie Banderas: How do you respond to critics who warn that the science is still developing and that there are safety risks?
Dr. Joseph Varon: Look, I’m not being critical of that — it’s a reality. Everything has its good and its bad, but the only way to find out what’s good and what’s bad is to actually try it. Medicine has always been about trying something and seeing how patients respond. The worst thing we could do is nothing, and let these people keep suffering for who knows how long.
Julie Banderas: Dr. Joseph Varon, thank you very much for being with us, as always. Have a good day.
Dr. Joseph Varon: A pleasure, as always.
