FDA OK’s MDMA to be tested for PTSD treatment

Participants in the studies reported MDMA therapy “not only helped them with painful memories, but also had helped them stop abusing alcohol and other drugs”

December 01, 2016 06:29 PM

By J.p. Lawrence
San Antonio Express-News

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration gave permission for large-scale clinical trials of MDMA, the illegal party drug better known as Ecstasy— a final step before the possible approval of Ecstasy as a prescription drug for post-traumatic stress disorder.

In an article published in The New York Times Wednesday, efforts to test Ecstasy as a PTSD therapy were profiled:

“After three doses of MDMA administered under a psychiatrist’s guidance, the patients reported a 56 percent decrease of severity of symptoms on average, one study found. By the end of the study, two-thirds no longer met the criteria for having PTSD. Follow-up examinations found that improvements lasted more than a year after therapy.”

Participants in the studies reported MDMA therapy “not only helped them with painful memories, but also had helped them stop abusing alcohol and other drugs and put their lives back together.”

“If it weren’t for MDMA … ” one study participant, a firefighter, said.

“He’d be dead,” his wife finished.