MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD promising: study

Controlled doses of ecstasy improve PTSD symptoms in those finding traditional therapy unsuccessful, trial suggests.

MDMA-assisted therapy has been found to have a 67 per cent remission rate among patients suffering severe post-traumatic stress disorder under new phase three trials which compared its efficacy against the use of placebo.

The multinational US study, published May 10 in prestigious journal Nature Medicine, found a “clinically significant improvement” among the majority of trial participants who were given three doses of MDMA (ecstasy) in a “controlled clinical environment” over an 18 week period.

MDMA-assisted therapy for severe PTSD: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 3 study was led by researchers from the University of Toronto and New York University.

The study arrived one week after Mind Medicine Australia announced it would begin phase II trials of psychedelic-assisted therapy at a “fit-for-purpose” clinic in Melbourne with ASX-listed medical company Emyria.

MMA Chair Peter Hunt said the results of this new study were encouraging and provided hope for many who found traditional therapy unsuccessful.

“The beauty of MDMA is, and what it does is, it gets the patient really comfortable,” Mr Hunt said.

“And in that environment, the therapist can get you to open up about what happened to you, without you being retriggered because you feel safe.”

The use of MDMA to treat patients with PTSD “has been shown to enhance fear memory extinction” and “modulate fear memory reconsolidation” as “amphetamine methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) induces serotonin release by binding primarily to presynaptic serotonin transporters,” the study found.

“These data suggest that MDMA has an equivalent, if not better, safety profile compared

with that of first-line SSRIs (antidepressants) for the treatment of PTSD.”

“MDMA was equally effective in participants with comorbidities that are often associated with treatment resistance.”

While MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD was granted breakthrough therapy designation by the US Food and Drugs Administration in 2017, Mr Hunt said Australians would not gain access to MDMA or psilocybin-assisted (magic mushrooms) therapy for at least a year.