by Sean Adl-Tabatabai
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has approved
the first clinical trial of MDMA to treat anxiety and other
psychological illnesses, amid a growing resurgence in therapeutic
psychedelic drug usage in the medical community.
Aljazeera.com reports:
“The tide has changed for psychedelic research,” said
Brad Burge, the communications director for the Multidisciplinary
Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), a California-based nonprofit
research group that studies medicinal uses for psychedelics and
marijuana and is sponsoring the study. The DEA approved the project on
Friday, he said.
Unlike Ecstasy or Molly — names for MDMA sold on the street and often
mixed with dangerous adulterants — pure MDMA has been proved
“sufficiently safe” when taken a limited number of times in moderate
doses, MAPS says on its website. The DEA did not immediately respond to a
request for comment.
MDMA can be useful in psychotherapy for people suffering from anxiety
due to life-threatening illnesses because it produces in users a sense
of calm, trust and confidence, Burge said. Unlike psychedelics such as
LSD and psilocybin, MDMA does not produce hallucinations, he added.
The clinical trial will be held in Marin, California, in a
psychologist’s office, as opposed to a hospital setting, Burge said. The
patients will lie on a couch with a therapist nearby for support and
conversation.
In the trial, 18 subjects diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses
will attend months of psychotherapy, with MDMA being used in a few
sessions in order to facilitate the process, he said. The outcome will
be measured by whether using the psychedelic helps reduce people’s
anxiety, which will be determined at the end of the sessions by the
patient’s feedback and the therapist’s assessments.
Researchers hope that using MDMA alongside psychotherapy will let
subjects confront their situation more clearly and allow the positive
steps they take during the therapy to “stick,” Burge said. “It opens
them up and makes them more comfortable with the therapist while
reducing fear and making them more able to talk about difficult
emotions.”
If the pilot is successful, MAPS plans to continue with further
studies involving more subjects and different approaches. For now,
researchers hope to establish basic safety and effectiveness, he said.
The trial is part of a larger $20 million plan to make MDMA an
FDA-approved prescription medicine by 2021, Burge said. MAPS is the only
organization in the world funding MDMA-assisted psychotherapy trials,
he added.
The institute has carried out successful pilot studies of
MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for post-traumatic stress disorder, adding
to the drug’s scientific credibility, he said. Other research by the
institute includes ayahuasca-assisted therapy for drug addiction, LSD
for cluster headaches and psilocybin for nicotine addiction.
Researchers hope to back up growing evidence that psychedelics have
legitimate therapeutic uses — and to counter the narrative that has
demonized them as mind-destroying drugs.
“That’s what the really good science shows, despite decades of
propaganda and government misinformation,” Burge said. “Just a couple
weeks ago, a phenomenal study showed that there are no long-term
associations between psychedelic use and mental illnesses.”
That study was published this month in the Journal of
Psychopharmacology. In addition, a recent report by Johns Hopkins
Medicine, a leading U.S. medical institution combining the Johns Hopkins
University School of Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Hospital, showed
that the use of psychedelic drugs — primarily psilocybin and LSD — could
reduce psychological distress and suicidal thinking.
