It is actually known as a party drug. After positive results, researchers are pushing for the approval of MDMA as a treatment for PTSD.
California – When traumatic events cannot be processed properly, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can occur. Those affected develop a mental illness in which the stressful memories keep coming back. For treatment, people receive psychotherapy, often cognitive behavioral therapy. But medication can also complement the therapy, so that AOK health magazine.
In a study The neurologist Jennifer Mitchell and her research team from the University of California have now tested the effect of MDMA on PTSD patients. MDMA, short for methylenedioxymethylamphetamine, is actually better known as a party drug. However, the effect can be supportive in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Study of the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder with MDMA
Over 18 weeks, the participants in the study were administered MDMA a total of three times in addition to regular psychotherapy. Similarly, there was also a control group that only received psychotherapy but no MDMA. The results show that in the medication group, 71 percent of patients no longer met diagnostic criteria for PTSD after treatment. In the control group with placebo pills, this only applied to 48 percent.
No physical dependence could be observed. Used as a party drug, the risk of addiction with MDMA is loud gesundheit.gv.at lower than other drugs because it is used more situationally and less in everyday life. Nevertheless, psychological symptoms and a so-called MDMA hangover can occur after taking it. Psychological incidents such as flashbacks occurred three times in the treated group. But two of these cases also occurred in the placebo group.
MDMA has an empathogenic and an entactogenic effect. This means that it increases both social interaction and awareness of one’s own feelings. The drug can reduce fear of memories and inhibitions about discussing them in therapy. “What would otherwise require strong intervention from the therapist often happens almost by itself with MDMA,” says Dimitris Repantis, co-head of the Psychedelic Substances Research Group. However, what exactly happens in the body when it is used in trauma therapy has not yet been fully researched.
Approval of MDMA in therapy soon in Germany too?
The results follow positive results from a study from 2021. In the new study, the focus was on examining a more ethnically diverse group of test subjects. Minorities are particularly often affected by traumatic events and the resulting PTSD.
With the results, the research group hopes to get MDMA approved for the treatment of PTSD patients in the USA. This was already enforced in Australia in the summer of 2023. A preparatory study for the approval of MDMA in trauma therapy is currently underway in Europe. In Germany, however, this will take several years.