MDMA-Assisted Therapy: A Qualitative Study

While MDMA is unlikely to be used as a primary source of treatment for mental disorders, recent research has evaluated it’s utility as an adjunct to psychotherapy for the treatment of PTSD. To evaluate the effects of MDMA-assisted therapy for the treatment of resistant and chronic PTSD, Oehen, Traber, Widmer and Schnyder (2013) conducted a pilot study to test the safety and efficacy of this treatment. First, Oehen et al. (2013) briefly outlined a current neurocircuitry model for PTSD. Oehen et al. (2013) stated that individuals with PTSD experience exaggerated and uncontrolled fear responses in the amygdala, as a result of the individual experiencing trauma specific stimuli. In addition, Oehen et al. (2013) stated there is a deficient
However, participants’ CAPS scores in the active placebo condition slightly increased over time. In addition, results indicated no serious aversive reactions or experiences related to MDMA. Overall, Oehen et al.’s (2013) study provided encouraging data that indicated MDMA-assisted therapy can be utilized safely in an outpatient setting. Despite the encouraging results, there were several limitations. First, as MDMA significantly effects and alters individuals, Oehen et al. (2013) stated it was unclear which effects were drug-related or treatment-related. Finally, due to the small sample sized and the fixed location, the results cannot be generalized to all individuals with PTSD. While Oehen et al. (2013) evaluated the safety and efficacy of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for individuals with chronic PTSD, Mithoefer et al. (2013) evaluated the improvement of PTSD symptoms and the absence of aversive effects and/or MDMA dependency, subsequent to MDMA-assisted psychotherapy over a long-term follow-up. Mithoefer et al. (2013) utilized participants from Mithoefer et al.’s (2011) study whereby the authors recruited 20 participants with
Mithoefer et al. (2011) randomly assigned 12 participants to the drug condition and 8 participants to a non-active placebo condition. Participants underwent two, eight hour drug sessions that were three to five weeks apart, with weekly psychotherapy-only sessions in between the drug sessions (Mithoefer et al., 2011). For the current study, Mithoefer et al. (2013) recruited all 20 participants from the original study. Overall, data was obtained from 19 of the original 20 participants. After an evaluation of participants’ current symptoms PTSD-related symptoms, long-term neurocognitive impairments, and drug abuse Mithoefer et al. (2013) found that 17 of the 19 maintained improvement in their PTSD symptoms over time, whereas two of the participants began experiencing PTSD symptoms again. Overall, Mithoefer et al. (2013) found similar results to that of Oehen et al. (2013), both of which provided evidence to support the clinical utility and safety of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for treatment of chronic PTSD. Moreover, Mithoefer et al. (2013) also demonstrated that improvements in PTSD symptomology can be maintained over time. Despite the aforementioned findings