FDA Says MDMA is Breakthrough Cure for PTSD After Shocking Success of Clinical Trials

It's a big step forward for a controversial treatment.



'Molly' tablets often don't contain much MDMA, because they're packed with fillers. The purest way to get MDMA is in crystal form.

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Ecstasy doesn’t sound like something you do in a doctor’s office. But the Food and Drug Administration wants that to change. The FDA just approved the substance, more clinically known as MDMA, as a ‘breakthrough’ drug—and will work to move it through clinical trials as efficiently as possible.

The FDA only grants breakthrough status when a medication (for a serious disease) is likely to offer significantly better results than currently available treatments. It may seem wild that the same drug that EDM lovers take at raves is going to help soldiers recover from war-related trauma. But if you know how MDMA works, it shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Ecstasy makes you feel great, and that’s why it’s such an effective therapy

Once MDMA gets into the bloodstream, it prompts a massive release of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. The collective efforts of all three neurotransmitters make the user feel euphoric, giving them a heightened sense of empathy and of physical sensations. A loved one’s touch suddenly feels like it transmits their love directly through your skin. Rhythmic beats and aesthetically pleasing sights become completely enthralling. That's why people take it at raves—it amplifies all the positive sensations they feel when they listen to music and dance.

That's the same reason that it works so well for PTSD patients. On MDMA, the user’s brain is flooded with all the neurotransmitters that make them feel good, and that can make it a lot easier to recall painful memories. Biologically speaking, every time you engage a memory, you’re re-experiencing it. The set of neurons that encodes that memory are all firing the same way they did when the memory formed. But that means you might have an opportunity to revise the memory every time you recall it: because the original neurons are firing, they’re more susceptible to making new connections or strengthening old ones. A fearful memory will stay fearful you experience the same fear all over again whenever you recall it.

MDMA could help rewire that memory. While high on ecstasy, patients don't feel the same pain when resurfacing a scarring memory. It becomes much easier for people to deal with those experiences with their therapist when they’re not fighting visceral fear. MDMA helps patients have more productive conversations about past trauma with their therapists.

MDMA can give relief to patients for whom nothing else has worked, and with minimal risks

In one study, 67 percent of PTSD patients had no signs of the disease after three MDMA therapy sessions. Just 23 percent of non-MDMA-assisted patients had the same results. Another long-term study followed 16 people who had PTSD that was unresponsive to all other therapies. Of those, two had relapses and the rest were considered clinically cured (meaning their score on a clinical evaluation fell below the minimum needed for PTSD diagnosis). Those improvements lasted for years after treatment.

Not all psychologists like the idea of using MDMA as a therapy tool. Plenty of them see it as unnecessary, or argue that the sessions you get while high on molly aren’t structured enough to be useful clinically.Some people also argue that ecstasy could be harmful to the brain’s structure in the long term. Several studies in the past showed detrimental effects in chronic MDMA users. A follow up study in 2011 argued that those other experiments were flawed. They all looked at MDMA users without considering the fact that lots of molly fans are also likely to use other illicit drugs, and drink more alcohol than average. When researchers limited the scope to people who used only MDMA, they found no signs of long-term damage from the drug.

Certainly MDMA won’t work for everyone—no treatment does. It may not be the first line therapy, and instead be reserved for particularly stubborn trauma cases. It might only be prescribed to specific subsets of patients, and likely only for use in the presence of a licensed therapist. Regardless of the eventual details, the results have clearly gotten the FDA's attention. Breakthrough status is reserved for very promising therapies, and they don’t hand out the designation lightly. It indicates a strong motivation to get the drug to market, and MDMA could be in the hands of therapists across the U.S. in the very near future. And whether or not you think that illicit drugs should be used in psychotherapy, the results suggest that such a move could help millions of Americans who suffer from PTSD get their lives back.




https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/fda-says-mdma-breakthrough-cure-ptsd-shocking-success-clinical-trials/

MDMA does what it says on the tin: it makes you feel a state of ecstasy, meaning a peace and calm like you've never experienced. I can completely understand why it's now being considered for this type of treatment.

eddie wrote:MDMA does what it says on the tin: it makes you feel a state of ecstasy, meaning a peace and calm like you've never experienced. I can completely understand why it's now being considered for this type of treatment.

Was chatting with one of mates who used to be a bouncer at night clubs the other day. He is right when he said there was hardly ever any trouble when it was all the rave when people were all on E's. Easiest nights he ever worked.

If you're in a club full of people on MDMA then you'll only be witnessing deep conversations, lots of affection and people being lost inside of a song.

The only trouble that ever happens is when people come in drunk. Then the fights kick off.

eddie wrote:If you're in a club full of people on MDMA then you'll only be witnessing deep conversations, lots of affection and people being lost inside of a song.

The only trouble that ever happens is when people come in drunk. Then the fights kick off.

Ah but he was smart and never let in the drunks  

Its true though, as when I did ecstasy and was out, I really never saw any trouble back in the early rave days.

You mean the "good old days" didge

eddie wrote:You mean the "good old days" didge

Absolutely Eddie....

I'm taking it they are referring to the pure form of MDMA? aka Molly?

Your common or garden E is mixed with other substances.

Also, it's hardly a breakthrough. Molly was first prescribed in the 70's.

Anyone who's taken E knows it also produces a downer.

And you grind your teeth like a fucker and get eye jitters.

I can't imagine for one moment, those prescribed will be happy with just one controlled dose.

HoratioTarr wrote:Also, it's hardly a breakthrough.  Molly was first prescribed in the 70's.  

Anyone who's taken E knows it also produces a downer.

Does it?

That is news to me, always had sex for ages coming off it.

Makes you last for ever....

Never once had a downer off one.

HoratioTarr wrote:And you grind your teeth like a fucker and get eye jitters.  

I can't imagine for one moment, those prescribed will be happy with just one controlled dose.

Sure you weren't doing coke or speed????

Some ecstasy tablets are mixed with a little speed.
Pure MDMA or "Molly" is supposed to be ecstasy in the purest form.

eddie wrote:Some ecstasy tablets are mixed with a little speed.
Pure MDMA or "Molly" is supposed to be ecstasy in the purest form.

I guess it depends on what is mixed in, but only ever grind my teeth on just speed, after having too much lol.

I would always smoked joints later on the next day after an E, which is maybe why I never had a downer

Fond memories...

Thorin wrote:

eddie wrote:Some ecstasy tablets are mixed with a little speed.
Pure MDMA or "Molly" is supposed to be ecstasy in the purest form.

I guess it depends on what is mixed in, but only ever grind my teeth on just speed, after having too much lol.

I would always smoked joints later on the next day after an E, which is maybe why I never had a downer

Fond memories...

Yeah a nice little touke and a cup of tea to relax and some good chilling tunes.
Happy Mondays!

eddie wrote:

Thorin wrote:


I guess it depends on what is mixed in, but only ever grind my teeth on just speed, after having too much lol.

I would always smoked joints later on the next day after an E, which is maybe why I never had a downer

Fond memories...

Yeah a nice little touke and a cup of tea to relax and some good chilling tunes.
Happy Mondays!

Cafe Del Mar albums, to chill out to.....

Thorin wrote:

HoratioTarr wrote:And you grind your teeth like a fucker and get eye jitters.  

I can't imagine for one moment, those prescribed will be happy with just one controlled dose.

Sure you weren't doing coke or speed????

Nope. Mind you, the pills could have been mixed with stuff. You'd often see people throwing up in the clubs.

Thorin wrote:

eddie wrote:Some ecstasy tablets are mixed with a little speed.
Pure MDMA or "Molly" is supposed to be ecstasy in the purest form.

I guess it depends on what is mixed in, but only ever grind my teeth on just speed, after having too much lol.

I would always smoked joints later on the next day after an E, which is maybe why I never had a downer

Fond memories...

Hated speed. Massive downers. Couldn't stand weed either. However, I do remember smoking a joint once that I shared with a couple of mates, and the stuff was so good we giggled for about two hours.

HoratioTarr wrote:

Thorin wrote:


Sure you weren't doing coke or speed????

Nope.   Mind you, the pills could have been mixed with stuff.   You'd often see people throwing up in the clubs.    

Must not have been very good pills then.

HoratioTarr wrote:

Thorin wrote:


I guess it depends on what is mixed in, but only ever grind my teeth on just speed, after having too much lol.

I would always smoked joints later on the next day after an E, which is maybe why I never had a downer

Fond memories...

Hated speed.  Massive downers.   Couldn't  stand weed either.    However, I do remember smoking a joint once that I shared with a couple of mates, and the stuff was so good we giggled for about two hours.

Happy days.  

Uncontrollable giggles after smoking.  

Thorin wrote:

HoratioTarr wrote:

Nope.   Mind you, the pills could have been mixed with stuff.   You'd often see people throwing up in the clubs.    

Must not have been very good pills then.

Possibly. In the 80's the pills were purer, I was clubbing much later in the 90's onwards. I remember being in Amnesia in Ibiza and feeling like Wallace (from Wallace and Gromit) wearing the mechanical wrong trousers! My feet had a life of their own and my body just followed! That was in 2005. I was like...OK, I'm getting too old for this now! My brother still goes to Creamfields and he's fifty odd.

Thorin wrote:

HoratioTarr wrote:

Hated speed.  Massive downers.   Couldn't  stand weed either.    However, I do remember smoking a joint once that I shared with a couple of mates, and the stuff was so good we giggled for about two hours.

Happy days.  

Uncontrollable giggles after smoking.  

Yeah, but most of the stuff like skunk just made me get the greenies. I ate a chunk of hash once when I was about 17. I heard church bells for two fucking days!