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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-06-19 Daily Xml
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POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER

The Hon. SANDRA KANCK (15:16): I seek leave to provide an explanation before asking the Minister for Police, representing the Minister for Veterans' Affairs, a question about treatment for veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Leave granted.

The Hon. SANDRA KANCK: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) involves the development of characteristic symptoms following exposure to an extreme traumatic stress disorder. The traumatic event could be experienced on active service in a war zone or in a workplace, such as a bank or service station when an armed robbery takes place; it could be a rape; or it could involve being trapped by fire. MAPS—the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies—is a US-based non-profit research and educational organisation which assists scientists to design, fund, obtain approval for and report on studies into the risks and benefits of the therapeutic uses of MDMA, psychedelic drugs and marijuana.

It has had excellent results from trials of MDMA on former serving US and Israeli soldiers suffering from PTSD. Roughly 4 per cent of US soldiers returning from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq suffer PTSD. In turn, they make up 8 per cent of health claims to the Veterans Affairs' section. It is expected that, over the next 50 years, they will cost the US taxpayer $100 billion because one-third of these PTSD sufferers will be unemployable. Dr Ben Sessa of Bristol University's Psychopharmacology Unit told Britain's Sunday Times on 4 May this year that the use of MDMA for severe, unremitting PTSD sufferers could be a lifeline. My questions to the minister are:

1. What numbers of veterans in South Australia are experiencing PTSD?

2. Is he aware of the international scientific research that has investigated the use of methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) as a treatment for PTSD?

3. Does he consider that the supervised therapeutic use of MDMA holds promise as an efficacious treatment for PTSD; and, if so, will the government support clinical trials of pharmaceutical MDMA as a treatment for PTSD?

4. Will he approach the Centre for Military and Veterans' Health at the University of Adelaide to suggest a local trial of MDMA for veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Police, Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning) (15:19): I will pass those questions onto my colleague the Minister for Veterans' Affairs in the other place, although I imagine that most of those statistics would be held by the federal department rather than the state department, but I will —

The Hon. J.M.A. Lensink interjecting:

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY: Well, exactly, but that is a federal department. Anyway, I will refer those questions to my colleague in another place and bring back a reply.

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