In dance clubs the drug called “ecstasy” is known as a potent (and illegal) way of enhancing your senses and boosting your mood. Now a study published online in July in the Journal of Psychopharmacology suggests that when coupled with psychotherapy, the drug might also be an effective treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
South Carolina psychiatrist Michael Mithoefer, along with his co-therapist and wife, Annie Mithoefer, ran the trial with 21 participants who had developed chronic, treatment-resistant PTSD as a result of experiences with crime or war. They gave each participant two sessions with either MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, which is ecstasy’s chemical name) or a placebo. Those who received MDMA took 125 milligrams, comparable to an amount a recreational user might take in a club, as their psychotherapy session began. Two and a half hours later, as the session progressed, subjects took a booster dose of half that amount to ensure the effects continued. The placebo group got sugar pills at corresponding times, and both groups received about eight hours of psychotherapy in total.
Two months after the treatment fewer than 17 percent of the MDMA-treated subjects continued to qualify for a diagnosis of PTSD, as opposed to 75 percent of the subjects who received a placebo. “Our results are encouraging, and we had no significant safety problems.
The next step is to find out if these results can be replicated elsewhere,” says Mithoefer, who is in private practice near Charleston. The study, sponsored by the Santa Cruz–based nonprofit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, was the first FDA-approved trial evaluating MDMA’s therapeutic applications. More trials of ecstasy for PTSD are under way in Switzerland and Israel, with other studies starting soon in Canada, Jordan and Spain.
Mithoefer considers the findings especially notable given that 20 of the 21 participants had previously failed to obtain relief with currently approved medications and with at least one course of psychotherapy. PTSD is notoriously difficult to treat, affecting an estimated 7.8 percent of Americans.
So why does MDMA work when current medications do not? The leading theory, proposed by Mithoefer, builds on a therapeutic technique in which patients are exposed to their disturbing memories in a safe environment. To be effective, the theory goes, exposure therapy must be accompanied by a degree of emotional engagement, while avoiding dissociation or overwhelming emotion. PTSD patients often have a narrow window between thresholds of underarousal and overarousal. If MDMA widens this window, allowing patients to stay emotionally engaged while revisiting traumatic experiences, then it may catalyze effective exposure therapy.
In addition, MDMA elevates the hormone oxytocin, which is involved in feelings of affiliation and trust. Higher levels of oxytocin might help patients to form a more trusting bond with their therapist, so that they may revisit traumatic experiences in an emotionally engaged state.
This article was originally published with the title Ecstasy Triumphs over Agony.
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Add CommentSo let's recap: Marijuana, Psilocybin, LSD and now MDMA all have demonstrated medicinal benefits.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf the misguided "war on (illegal) drugs" had not been so obtuse, and wasted millions of dollars, these beneficial uses of common drugs could have been helping people for years.
Sounds like another great idea for a South Park episode, � la, "Medicinal Fried Chicken." Call it "The Esctasy and the Agony"; of course, Kenny could O.D.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thissciam, do some due diligence - ecstasy is not synonymous with MDMA, molly is. ecstasy is MDMA along with some kind of upper, if you're lucky something as 'benign' as speed, and if you're unlucky something like heroin.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisso, to recap, ecstasy != MDMA, molly == MDMA
lol, medical fried chicken ws one of the best episode!!!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis was not a new study.... PTSD and MDMA have been proven many times. Looks like sciAM is reaching in the archives or something.
But your right, the U.S. Drg policy is rediculous.
Let's just get this clear. This compound is safe to use in therapy but it just happens to change your body chemistry to make you feel good if you take it. So the reason that it is banned is because it makes you feel good? Running changes my body chemistry and makes me feel good - it should be banned immediately (quite a few people drop dead while running every year).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLet's JUST legalize drugs altogether and let them overdose if they wanna die !!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEventually the drug law charade will collapse. People won't suffer forever. Will they?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis new form of treatment is visionary and sounds efficient. This drug, usually frowned upon, is already used to make people happy; what better subjects need to be cheered up and open to their emotions than people suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome. With professional watch and management of the dosage of this drug along with a sufficient amount of exposure therapy, it seems logical that a person would be able to deal with their problems directly and moving on instead of living in the horrors of their past. The results of this experiment prove that good comes from taking MDMA, therefore it seems to be a no-brainer that this will become the new, yet prominent form of treatment for people who return from war. The data and conclusion from this experiment are hopeful and prove to show a promising, happy outcome for people with post traumatic stress syndrome.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBut what about the side effects of such drugs? I'm not saying that giving people with PTSD a low dosage of ecstasy is bad; in fact, I encourage it if it helps them overcome their trauma. But drugs like marijuana, shrooms, LSD and MDMA all have dangerous side effects. Such effects, like the risk of toxic psychosis from smoking too much marijuana, not only put the user in danger, it also risks other peoples' lives. And not only that; users of such drugs develop things like memory loss, psychosis, mood swings, aggression, depression, not to mention brain damage in general. The list just goes on and on.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnd we also have to be careful of the after effects it can have on their lives. They may develop an addiction to the drug, and we all know where that path leads. It becomes a hard and difficult road, some resort to crime, some end up in poverty, and some end up dead.
I'm not saying that we shouldn't do everything in our power to help people. I'm just saying that we need to be careful of how we do it
candide,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think we should measure the pros and cons of each of those substances before we judge that the war on drugs is a complete waste of time and money. First of all, for most of the substances you listed, maybe a couple legitimate medicinal uses exist. However, in 2000, 17,000 deaths occurred from illicit use of drugs. I think it is safe to assume these small medical benefits are outweighed by the death toll on these substances. Secondly, as the brother of an addict, I know how it feels when drug use turns to abuse. It isn’t pretty, it isn’t healthy, and I don’t think I need to say that it hurts everyone around them. HOWEVER, I really do like the idea of using these substances for medicinal purposes, under the condition that they are only used under the supervision of professionals, like in the psychotherapy sessions in this study.
I wonder if the United States Government could stoop so low as in legalizing ectasy to "cure" post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as in the same way as legalizing marijuana for "benefiting" the public. I would guess in the future, every illegal drug that's dangerous would be "legalized" to "help" individuals that suffer some type of disorder, symptom, or whatever excuse the government can find to make people believe it's okay to actually smoke, snort,etc that drug.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGO AMERICA!!!!!!
So does the editor not read Wikipedia before publishing stuff in his mag? Even in clubs in the 80s, the folk history I heard described MDMA's previous use as a psychotherapeutic facilitator. Fair enough this is a new study, but the surprised and revelatory tenor of this article makes the real news the author's own historic ignorance rather than the uses of MDMA.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@ Erostisi, I'm curious as to what studies you're quoting involving marijuana and toxic psychosis, as well as any brain damage involving these substances as well. There has been some links to some depression and brain alteration in users with a history of excessive MDMA use, however in correct doses and infrequent use there are none of the aforementioned side effects you mention. You're talk of drug addiction and crime rates is 99% based upon highly addictive drugs like cocaine, amphetamines, and opiates, I have never heard of anyone dying from LSD, MDMA (though some OD's on ecstacy, which is different from MDMA, because of it's amphetamine properties) Psylocybin or any other non addictive drugs mentioned in the post.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@ccross7 you're making categorical errors by grouping the aforementioned substances with medicinal properties in with the drugs that cause deaths (heroin, cocaine, meth) and crime. If anything keeping the potentially beneficial substances (LSD, mushrooms, MDMA, Marijuana)illegal only puts people in more danger of getting substances that are "cut" with other drugs, and putting people is potentially hazardous situations. Drug dealers are also willing to sell to anyone who's willing to buy, and by having government controlled substances in the same was as alcohol, will help prevent kids from obtaining drugs.
It's very rare to find crippling addiction, deaths, and crime, when the drugs aren't addictive nor physically hazardous, there needs to be more research done, and more public awareness as to differentiating these substances.