MDMA to treat PTSD

[wub]

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/2013060 ... -the-agony

A trial is currently assessing whether the drug MDMA can treat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder – whether the new research will convince critics is another matter.

It is hardly surprising that Tony Macie has an over-developed sense of awareness. As a US Army private he served for 15 months in Baghdad, calling in artillery and air support in his role as a member of a reconnaissance unit. Deadly roadside bombs and insurgent attacks were everyday occurrences in the city divided by sectarian violence. Being hyper-vigilant can help keep a soldier alive in a warzone, but when Macie returned home in 2007, he couldn’t switch off. “My brain was working on overdrive all the time,” he says. “I couldn’t relax, couldn’t unwind.”

He was diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), but found the standard treatments – mainly psychotherapy and anti-depressants – were of little help. While searching for an effective alternative, Macie came across the website of Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). This not-for-profit group was sponsoring research into the use of MDMA, better known by its street name ecstasy, as a treatment for PTSD. He enrolled in a study that is currently looking at whether combined use of the drug and psychotherapy could provide relief for those with the debilitating anxiety disorder.

MDMA was originally developed by scientists at the German chemical and pharmaceutical company Merck a century ago, while they were investigating ways to stop abnormal bleeding. In the 1970s, a number of psychiatrists used the chemical to enhance communication with patients. The practice ended when MDMA became better known as a party drug, leading to it being outlawed in the US in 1985.

Evidence for its therapeutic efficacy was largely anecdotal. However, a small clinical trial published in 2010 suggested the drug can increase response to psychotherapy among people with PTSD. Now Rick Doblin, the founder and executive director of MAPS, hopes further studies, such as the one Macie is taking part in, will eventually lead to MDMA being approved by the US Food and Drug Administration as a new effective treatment option for PTSD. “Everywhere we go, what we’re told is ‘this is really important’, but the people we’ve spoken with were not high enough in the hierarchy to comfortably say yes,” says Doblin. He does, however, believe he is making headway. He recently had a meeting in the Pentagon to discuss his research (although he declined to identify the office on the record).

On trial

MAPS also funded the clinical trial published three years ago, which was led by Michael Mithoefer, a psychiatrist based in South Carolina. It involved 20 PTSD patients, the majority of whom had the disorder after being sexually assaulted, or being sexually or physically abused as children. Participants were given either MDMA or an inactive placebo during psychotherapy sessions, and were later assessed for symptoms of PTSD. Ten of the 12 (83%) given MDMA responded positively, compared to just two of the eight (25%) who took placebos.

Mithoefer’s interest in MDMA dates back to a career shift in 1991, when he moved from emergency medicine to psychiatry. “I was interested in experiential therapy, helping people shift their consciousness in some way,” he says. He became interested in MDMA's possible use in psychotherapy from anecdotal evidence reported prior to the drug's US ban. "There were published reports, but no controlled research," he says. PTSD was beginning to rise in the public consciousness in light of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "I thought it behoved us to take a careful look at whether these anecdotal reports of MDMA could be born out with rigorous controlled trials."

Mithoefer is also running the trial that Macie is participating in. A group of 24 veterans and firefighters will take part in three sessions during which they will be given MDMA before undergoing psychotherapy. The hypothesis is that participants will feel less fear and be better able to talk about the traumatic experiences that caused their PTSD while under the influence of the drug.

Thoughts?

[skell1ngton777]

I think it's great

There is definite therapeutic potential for MDMA, and not just for PTSD. This has been known since the 80s though, through the work of people like Shulgin.

In a way it is a shame that it became such a huge recreational thing, since that pretty much ensured that it would not soon be considered credible as a therapeutic drug.

That could be said for a number of chemicals.

[d-T-r]

Lots more room for promising exploration Pretty sure this topic will be discussed at the upcoming breaking convention for those interested.



http://breakingconvention.co.uk/

http://breakingconvention.co.uk/partici ... -sessa-md/

Also, i made a general threads about psychedelics/alternative substances for therapeutic uses here >

http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.p ... ychedelics

[ezza]

Mandy makes me feel so depressed after taking it tho

what happens when they're coming down

[d-T-r]

i'm sure they'll have it all regulated and planned for. doubtful they will be giving out anywhere near as much as your average/not so average night out.

If not, orange juice, 5htp an easy film and a long sleep

[Sexual_Chocolate]

Mandy makes me feel so depressed after taking it tho

what happens when they're coming down

from the studies ive read, they usually dont do massive doses laced with crack/speed/etc.

its incredibly controlled, and the patients are usually well looked after afterwards as well.

i, for one, would love to see mdma being used as a form of therapy.

[butter_man]

Shrooms and being surrounded by good people for ptsd cure without the drop in seratonin ; there, i said it.

[wolf89]

Mandy makes me feel so depressed after taking it tho

what happens when they're coming down

from the studies ive read, they usually dont do massive doses laced with crack/speed/etc.

its incredibly controlled, and the patients are usually well looked after afterwards as well.

i, for one, would love to see mdma being used as a form of therapy.

This is what I'm guessing.

That or they give out prescription dvds of Wayne's World and Ferris Bueller's Day Off for the next day.

[ezza]

aha yeah fair

i always have this image of a support group and everyones just off their tits

[jaydot]

I take it this is pure MDMA and not the other shit you get recreationally which is laced with allsorts.

[ezza]

I take it this is pure MDMA and not the other shit you get recreationally which is laced with allsorts.

they probably get it pure from a lab yeah

i doubt there asking around, seeing if anybody 'knows a guy'

[Genevieve]

Well, any medication doesn't belong in your body, but if the negatives outweigh the positives I'm of course all for it. But it feels like a bit of a cop-out when this is used to treat soldiers with PTSD. Prevention is much better, so if people, especially the gov. truly cared about the military's well being, they wouldn't send them to fight in senseless, imperialistic wars.

[test_recordings]

Old news for the field but the media coverage is positive, at least. It'll be easier to get mainstream approval with a generally acceptable audience but general therapeutic applications deserve more attention

[DRTY]

great, if it helps people. It should be made a lot easier for researchers to use illegal substances though as they don't really know enough about them to make them illegal anyway. Though I do think most drugs should be illegal anyway, but perhaps make some controlled like MDMA, LSD, and maybe DA ERB, mainly because they're the ones which are most likely to have benefits in some applications.

[wormcode]

They've been doing this for a few years along with shrooms with very great results. They've given mushrooms to terminal patients along with placebos to others to study the effects, and the people are generally better after as they accept their fate and learn to move past it.

It's way past due, but it's incredibly ridiculously hard to get approval to do these things 'legally'. Like ibogaine treatment to cure things like opiate addiction, so people go to Mexico to do it.

But of course they plan to remove the euphoria and put it in an expensive pill form.

[vries]

Well, any medication doesn't belong in your body, but if the negatives outweigh the positives I'm of course all for it. But it feels like a bit of a cop-out when this is used to treat soldiers with PTSD. Prevention is much better, so if people, especially the gov. truly cared about the military's well being, they wouldn't send them to fight in senseless, imperialistic wars.

"Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship."