DescentBB

Ecstasy trials for combat stress

David Adam, science correspondent
Thursday February 17, 2005
The Guardian

American soldiers traumatised by fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are to be offered the drug ecstasy to help free them of flashbacks and recurring nightmares.

The US food and drug administration has given the go-ahead for the soldiers to be included in an experiment to see if MDMA, the active ingredient in ecstasy, can treat post-traumatic stress disorder.

Scientists behind the trial in South Carolina think the feelings of emotional closeness reported by those taking the drug could help the soldiers talk about their experiences to therapists. Several victims of rape and sexual abuse with post-traumatic stress disorder, for whom existing treatments are ineffective, have been given MDMA since the research began last year.

Michael Mithoefer, the psychiatrist leading the trial, said: "It's looking very promising. It's too early to draw any conclusions but in these treatment-resistant people so far the results are encouraging.

"People are able to connect more deeply on an emotional level with the fact they are safe now."

He is about to advertise for war veterans who fought in the last five years to join the study.

According to the US national centre for post-traumatic stress disorder, up to 30% of combat veterans suffer from the condition at some point in their lives.

Known as shell shock during the first world war and combat fatigue in the second, the condition is characterised by intrusive memories, panic attacks and the avoidance of situations which might force sufferers to relive their wartime experiences.

Dr Mithoefer said the MDMA helped people discuss traumatic situations without triggering anxiety.

"It appears to act as a catalyst to help people move through whatever's been blocking their success in therapy."

The existing drug-assisted therapy sessions last up to eight hours, during music is played. The patients swallow a capsule containing a placebo or 125mg of MDMA - about the same or a little more than a typical ecstasy tablet.

Psychologists assess the patients before and after the trial to judge whether the drug has helped.

The study has provoked controversy, because significant doubts remain about the long-term risks of ecstasy.

Animal studies suggest that it lowers levels of the brain chemical serotonin, and some politicians and anti-drug campaigners have argued that research into possible medical benefits of illegal drugs presents a falsely reassuring message.

The South Carolina study marks a resurgence of interest in the use of controlled psychedelic and hallucinogenic drugs. Several studies in the US are planned or are under way to investigate whether MDMA, LSD and psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, can treat conditions ranging from obsessive compulsive disorder to anxiety in terminal cancer patients.

By the early 1980s, over a thousand private psychotherapists in the USA were using MDMA [ecstasy] in their clinical practice. [until it was blanket banned, then all the docs are all "wtf mate?"]

and some politicians and anti-drug campaigners have argued that research into possible medical benefits of illegal drugs presents a falsely reassuring message.

Birdseye wrote:Psychiatric medical studies on MDMA are older than raves.

Ferno wrote:

Birdseye wrote:Psychiatric medical studies on MDMA are older than raves.

IIRC they did some studies about MDMA and it's effects in the sixties.

Dedman wrote:

and some politicians and anti-drug campaigners have argued that research into possible medical benefits of illegal drugs presents a falsely reassuring message.

That's right, let's not even think about investigating the benefits of using this drug for legitimate medical purposes. It might be at odds with the failed "war on drugs". Style over substance baby

Bash wrote:Far out! Who knew that a drug designed so kids could get their groove on at all-night parties would end up with an actual medical use?

The identity of the first human being to take MDMA/Ecstasy isn't known. The drug first gained prominence only in the late 1970s. Tipped off by Merrie Kleinman, a graduate student in the medicinal chemistry group he advised at San Francisco State University, the legendary Californian psychedelic chemist Alexander ("Sasha") Shulgin synthesized and taste-tested MDMA at incrementally ascending doses. Ironically, Dr Shulgin had himself synthesized MDMA in 1965, but hadn't tried it, an error of omission he later did much to repair. The effects of a 120mg dose of MDMA are recorded in Dr Shulgin's lab-notes (Sept 1976):

"I feel absolutely clean inside, and there is nothing but pure euphoria. I have never felt so great or believed this to be possible. The cleanliness, clarity, and marvelous feeling of solid inner strength continued throughout the rest of the day and evening. I am overcome by the profundity of the experience..."

In the first published scholarly paper [Shulgin,A.T. & Nichols,D.E.: Characterization of three new psychotomimetics. In: Stillman,R.C. & Willette,R.E. (Eds.) The Pharmacology of hallucinogens. New York: Pergamon, 1978] on MDMA use in humans, Dr Shulgin and Dr David Nichols describe the effects of MDMA on the human psyche as "an easily controlled altered state of consciousness with emotional and sensual overtones." The well-connected stepfather of MDMA soon introduced the drug to the wider scientific community. Some of Dr Shulgin's friends, notably the "Johnny Appleseed of MDMA", Leo Zeff, were professional therapists. They in turn introduced MDMA to colleagues as a valuable adjunct to psychotherapy.

...

By the early 1980s, over a thousand private psychotherapists in the USA were using MDMA in their clinical practice. MDMA was commonly known as "Adam", an allusion to "being returned to the natural state of innocence before guilt, shame and unworthiness arose". MDMA was used discreetly; no one wanted a re-run of the 60s. Dr Shulgin himself reportedly felt MDMA came closest to fulfilling his ambition of finding the perfect psychotherapeutic drug.

Inevitably word leaked out. MDMA was profiled by the San Francisco Chronicle as "The Yuppie Psychedelic" (10 June 1984). In Newsweek, J Adler ["High on 'Ecstasy", April 15 1985] likened his MDMA experience to "a year of therapy in two hours". Harpers Bazaar described MDMA as "the hottest thing in the continuing search for happiness through chemistry". Unsurprisingly, MDMA use soon spread beyond the couch and clinic to the wider world. MDMA's now universal brand-name, "Ecstasy", was coined in 1981 by a member of a Los Angeles distribution network. The unnamed distributor, quoted in Bruce Eisner's Ecstasy:The MDMA Story (1989), apparently chose the name "Ecstasy" because "it would sell better than calling it 'Empathy'...

Psychiatric medical studies on MDMA are older than raves.