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Publish Date: 4th April 2019 // Category: Health, Posts Tags: ,

MDMA May Treat PTSD By Re Opening Sociable Window

Doctors believe MDMA is showing a lot of success in treating PTSD – which could be down to it stimulating social learning and increased brain connectivity.

Studies which were sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), a nonprofit organization that advocates for medical research on psychedelic substances showed a breakthrough for those suffering from PTSD researchers have suggested that MDMA a drug known from the 90s rave scene as Ecstasy – could allow PTSD sufferers to re-program the brain.

But how does MDMA work in the brain?

MDMA has many effects on the brain that appear to make the process of talking through past traumas easier. Dr Michael Mithoefer who is a psychiatrist in private practice in South Carolina.

Currently, psychotherapy, or talk therapy, is the “definitive treatment” for people with PTSD. There are drugs approved to treat PTSD, but they only target the symptoms and not the cause.

In a large percentage of people, psychotherapy doesn’t work well to treat the condition, Mithoefer said. The effects of the drug seem to act as an emotional opening for patients, allowing them to talk through and process their trauma, Mithoefer said. In other words, it’s not the specific actions of MDMA in the brain that appear to treat PTSD, but rather that it seems to make psychotherapy more effective, he said.

Therapy in a professional setting

People with PTSD are not likely going to feel “blissed out” when they take MDMA, Mithoefer said. In the trial that he conducted, patients did have positive experiences, but did not feel euphoric, he said.

The patients are processing the trauma that they went through, and even when they take MDMA, it is difficult and painful to do that, he said. But the drug seems to help them feel like they can go through the process without feeling overwhelmed, he said.

If the drug does eventually win approval from the FDA, researchers aren’t expecting it to be something patients simply go pick up at the pharmacy, Mithoefer said. Rather, it would be given at specialized clinics under direct supervision.

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