A psychedelic drug to cure PTSD?
Sufferers from post-traumatic stress disorder could get relief from an unlikely drug: MDMA, better known as the psychedelic Ecstasy. That’s the finding of a new study that involved 90 people with severe PTSD, including combat veterans, first responders, and victims of sexual assault. During three talk-therapy sessions, each eight hours long and spaced a month apart, the participants received either MDMA or a placebo. Two months after treatment, 67 percent of the MDMA group no longer qualified for a PTSD diagnosis, compared with 32 percent of the control group, reports The New York Times. “Literally, I’m a different person,” said Scott Ostrom, a
Marine vet who had suffered debilitating nightmares since returning from Iraq in 2007. The final barrier before MDMA can be approved for therapeutic use by the FDA—a second Phase 3 trial—is already underway. Mental health researchers say approval would pave the way for research on how the drug could treat other psychological issues, including substance abuse, eating disorders, and depression. What makes MDMA so promising is that unlike traditional pharmaceuticals that simply blunt the symptoms of PTSD, the psychedelic when combined with talk therapy can help the brain process painful memories and heal itself. Neuroscientists aren’t sure how MDMA does this. But they think it may be because the drug can enable a patient’s brain to return to a more malleable childhood state, when it was much better at making and storing new memories.