MDMA-assisted therapy and current treatment options for chronic, treatment-resistant, moderate or higher severity post-traumatic stress disorder: Systematic literature review.
PloS one January 1, 2025 Filip Stanicic, Vladimir Zah, Dimitrije Grbic et al. 5 citations
A systematic review of 77 randomized controlled trials compared MDMA-assisted therapy (MDMA-AT) with current treatments for chronic, treatment-resistant, moderate or higher severity PTSD in adults. MDMA-AT consistently showed greater improvement on the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) than placebo with therapy after two or three sessions, with durable effects lasting a mean of 45.4 months (0.9-point CAPS decrease from post-treatment). Some medications (venlafaxine ER, olanzapine, propranolol with memory reactivation, nefazodone, nabilone) and psychotherapies (cognitive therapy, CBT, CPT, PE) also showed significant CAPS improvement, but most psychotherapies lacked between-group comparisons. MDMA-AT also improved depression scores (19.7-point vs. 10.8-point decrease on BDI-II) and led to loss of PTSD diagnosis in 41.7-83.3% of participants. The review suggests current treatments have heterogeneous evidence and often lack sustained effects, while MDMA-AT showed consistent improvements.