1. José Gerardo Cruz Rivera 804-10-1716
MDMA (Ecstasy)-Assisted Psychotherapy Relieves Treatment-Resistant PTSD, Study Suggests
SAGE Publications UK (2010, July 20). MDMA (Ecstasy)-assisted psychotherapy relieves treatment-resistant
PTSD, study suggests.ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 21, 2010, from:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100719082927.htm
Belmont, MA-based Rick Doblin, Ph.D., President of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic
Studies (a non-profit psychedelic and medical marijuana research and educational organization that
sponsored the study), together with South Carolina-based psychiatrist Michael Mithoefer, MD and
colleagues, made an investigation on 20 patients with an average of 19 years with chronic post-
traumatic stress disorder. Prior to enrolling in the MDMA study, subjects were required to have
received, and failed to obtain relief, from both psychotherapy and psychopharmacology.
They analyzed this patients with MDMA and placebo. Participants treated with a combination of
MDMA and psychotherapy was statistically and clinically significant improvements more than the
placebo group in post-traumatic stress disorder.
The trial focused on psychotherapy sessions of eight hours scheduled about 3-5 weeks apart, where 12
subjects received MDMA, and eight took a placebo. Subjects also were given psychotherapy once a
week, before and after each experimental session. An evaluator-blind, independent tested each subject
using a scale of PTSD at baseline and at intervals of four days after each session and two months after
the second session. The clinical response was significant - 10 of 12 in the treatment group responded to
treatment compared with only two of eight in the placebo group. During the trial, subjects had no drug
related serious adverse events (SAEs) or adverse neurocognitive effects or clinically significant blood
pressure or temperature increase