PTSD sufferers may soon have the option of receiving MDMA therapy treatments after the psychedelic drug has proven to be effective in treating, and in some cases curing, the disorder, NPR reported.
While certainly an unconventional means of treatment, early clinical trials have shown significant success rates for those given doses of the drug.
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Historically, MDMA has been used as a recreational drug for its psychedelic effects.
Also known as ecstasy , the drug is commonly taken in tablet-form and increases the activity of three brain chemicals: dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin. The resulting effect is an enhanced sense of well-being, as well as a willingness to discuss emotionally-charged memories.
Scientists are currently testing how these effects of MDMA can work to treat and perhaps even cure PTSD sufferers.
Unlike street drugs, which can be altered and laced with other dangerous substances, researchers are using pure, precisely dosed forms of the drug to treat those who suffer from extreme emotional trauma.
As of right now, MDMA is not legally available for patients outside of clinical trials, but those trials are proving to be increasingly promising.
Researchers are currently conducting Phase 3 clinical trials at more than a dozen facilities in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. Clinicians are hoping the results of their studies will prove that MDMA-based treatment is a very real and very effective means of relieving a patient’s suffering.
People who have undergone MDMA therapy have reported a decrease in symptoms, and some have even reported their PTSD has been cured.
As part of the studies , 107 participants suffering from chronic, treatment-resistant PTSD recieved therapy, which saw them be given a dose of pure MDMA. Following this, they laid in a quiet room while two specially-trained psychotherapists encouraged them to discuss some of their deepest traumas.
Two months after the study concluded, 56% of participants no longer showed PTSD symptoms.
Even more incredibly, the 12-month follow-up had 68% of sufferers report they “no longer had PTSD”.
“[It] was astonishing,” Sue Sisley, physician and president of the Scottsdale Research Institute, said. “Even with the best pharmaceutical regimen, you rarely ever see patients go into remission.”
Researchers have found the MDMA triggers a neural response called a “critical period.”
This is when the brain is sensitive to learning the reward value of social behaviors, meaning that patients can use this period to revisit traumatic events in a clinical setting. Thus, those negative memories are reformed with positive associations.
Such successful studies have clinics pushing for the FDA to grant the drug expanded access , allowing a patient with an “immediately life-threatening condition, serious disease, or condition to gain access to an investigational medical product … for treatment outside of clinic trials when no comparable or satisfactory alternative therapy options are available.”
If the FDA approves, clinics anticipate to start offering the treatment to patients as early as the year 2020.
Until then, PTSD sufferers whose condition resists other forms of treatment can apply to participate in various psychoactive drug therapy trials through the nonprofit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS).
h/t: NPR
