Taxpayer Philanthropy: Illinois taxpayers are funding PTSD ‘God shot’ treatments

(The Center Square) – Illinois state officials awarded more than $170,000 in taxpayer money to a nonprofit that paid for PTSD injections by the founder’s private business because the founder claimed it helps many patients. But an investigation by The Center Square found the treatment claims are not supported by clinical trials.

Meanwhile, the nonprofit’s executive director collects two $100,000 salaries for separate but similar full-time nonprofit jobs, where she has raised millions of dollars in government grants, state and federal records show.

The nonprofit Erase PTSD Now touts a little-understood treatment for post traumatic stress disorder that involves deep injections into military veterans’ necks. The procedure is still being studied – including at federal Veterans Affairs clinics – and has been shown to partially alleviate PTSD symptoms in some people.

But the state grant money was awarded, at least in part, because the nonprofit claimed nearly half ...