Scientific Reports
March 16, 2021
Isaac Cohen, Tigran Makunts, Ruben Abagyan et al.
30 citations
Using FDA drug safety surveillance data, nearly one thousand reports of MDMA use were analyzed to evaluate risks of death when MDMA is taken alone or with other medications. Several drug classes—including MDMA metabolites or analogs, anesthetics, muscle relaxants, amphetamines and stimulants, benzodiazepines, ethanol, and opioids—along with the antidepressants bupropion, sertraline, venlafaxine, and citalopram, and the antipsychotic olanzapine, showed increased odds ratios for reported risk of death. The authors call for future clinical trials to assess whether these drug–drug interactions pose actual harm in controlled medical settings.
Frontiers in Psychiatry
January 24, 2022
Tigran Makunts, Lisa Jerome, Ruben Abagyan et al.
19 citations
MDMA, also known as ecstasy, is being studied as a treatment for PTSD and anxiety, with approval expected soon. Although MDMA affects serotonin and could theoretically cause serotonin syndrome—a potentially dangerous condition—no cases have occurred in clinical trials. A review of FDA adverse event reports found 20 cases of serotonin syndrome in people who took MDMA, but all had also used other serotonergic drugs such as amphetamines, stimulants, or opioids. No cases were linked to MDMA alone. These findings suggest that serotonin syndrome from MDMA alone is rare or absent in the available data.
Frontiers in psychiatry
January 1, 2024
Tigran Makunts, Ruben Abagyan
2 citations
MDMA, currently being studied as a treatment for PTSD, is extensively metabolized by the liver, raising concerns about rare but serious drug-induced liver injury (DILI). While clinical trials have not measured liver injury markers or observed DILI symptoms, analysis of over 1,500 reports from the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System identified 23 cases of hepatic injury or failure where MDMA was taken with other substances. Twenty-two of those cases involved other drugs with known DILI concern, and only one report listed MDMA as the primary suspect. Given nearly 20 million annual doses of MDMA, this single report is insufficient to establish a significant association with DILI.