MDMA For Medicine?
10 November 2001
For the first time since the criminalization of MDMA in 1985, the FDA have given their permission to allow research into the potential benefits of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, to go ahead… Last week, Rick Doblin, director of MAPS (Multi-disciplinary Association For Psychedelic Studies) announced that the FDA had approved MAPS’ ‘MDMA/PTSD Protocol’, a study into the use of MDMA in the treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. ‘This approval marks the culmination of 16 years of efforts to obtain permission from FDA for MDMA assisted pyschotherapy research …’ he said, ‘… this approval also marks the beginning of what I hope will be a $5 million, 5-year project to develop MDMA into a prescription medicine.’
In Spain, MDMA/PTSD studies are already underway, involving the testing of treatment on female victims of sexual assualt suffering from chronic PTSD. The FDA approval will make way for both the testing of MDMA/PTSD studies on victims of criminal assualt in the USA and an equivalent study in Israel, which aims to test subjects whose PTSD resulted from war and terrorism.
MAPS still need to obtain a Instituational Review Board approval from the Medical University of South Carolina, which is expected to take several further months, but it is now embarking on a $250,000 fund-raising campaign to mark the beginning of the ‘$5 million 5 year project’. The aim of this $250,000 campaign is to fully fund the US MDMA/PTSD study and the Israeli MDMA/PTSD study as well as cover the remaining cost of the current study in Spain. For the full story, go to http://maps.org/research/mdma
