Psychiatrists might be RAVING about a new treatment soon!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
Severe stress or trauma can cause post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Existing treatments don’t always work well or quickly enough. MDMA, also known as ecstasy or molly – so I’ve heard – has been previously shown to rapidly treat PTSD. Too good to be true?
Jennifer Mitchell from the University of California, San Francisco and team investigated.
Roughly one hundred patients with PTSD were given MDMA with talk therapy or talk therapy alone. Each participant had three therapy sessions about one month apart. Importantly, these individuals were much more ethnically diverse than previous studies.
Results?
The MDMA group experienced greater relief of their symptoms. Over SEVENTY percent of the MDMA group no longer met criteria for PTSD! No serious side effects were reported.
MDMA is a promising PTSD treatment, though more study is needed before it comes to YOUR clinic.
Now that deserves a dance party! Feel that bass!
Reference: Mitchell, J. M., Ot’alora G, M., van der Kolk, B., Shannon, S., Bogenschutz, M., Gelfand, Y., Paleos, C., Nicholas, C. R., Quevedo, S., Balliett, B., Hamilton, S., Mithoefer, M., Kleiman, S., Parker-Guilbert, K., Tzarfaty, K., Harrison, C., de Boer, A., Doblin, R., Yazar-Klosinski, B., & MAPP2 Study Collaborator Group (2023). MDMA-assisted therapy for moderate to severe PTSD: a randomized, placebo-controlled phase 3 trial. Nature medicine, 29(10), 2473–2480. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02565-4