Scientific Reports
November 24, 2020
Julane Andries, Lisa Jerome, Evan Sola et al.
170 citations
A randomized controlled trial tested MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for anxiety in people with life-threatening illnesses. Participants received either MDMA (125 mg) or placebo during two 8-hour psychotherapy sessions. At one month after the second session, the MDMA group showed a greater average reduction in anxiety scores (23.5 points) compared to the placebo group (8.8 points), but the difference did not reach statistical significance. The treatment was well tolerated. After the trial, all participants received open-label MDMA sessions. These preliminary results suggest MDMA-assisted psychotherapy may be a promising approach, but larger trials are needed to confirm its effectiveness.
Drug and Alcohol Dependence
February 1, 2022
Christopher R. Nicholas, Julie B. Wang, A. Coker et al.
67 citations
MDMA-assisted therapy for severe PTSD may also reduce hazardous alcohol use without increasing illicit drug use. In a randomized trial, 90 adults with severe PTSD received either MDMA-assisted therapy or placebo plus therapy. Those in the MDMA group showed a greater reduction in alcohol use scores (average decrease of 1.02 points) compared to a slight increase in the placebo group (average increase of 0.40 points). Changes in drug use scores did not differ between groups. The findings suggest MDMA-assisted therapy could serve as an integrated treatment for co-occurring PTSD and alcohol or substance use disorders.
PLoS ONE
January 10, 2024
Rachel Yehuda, Leah Bedrosian, Charlotte Harrison et al.
52 citations
In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 3 trial of 90 participants with severe PTSD, MDMA-assisted therapy produced significantly greater improvements than therapy with placebo on measures of emotional coping and self-experience. Participants receiving MDMA showed larger gains on the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, the Self-Compassion Scale, and most factors of the Inventory of Altered Self-Capacities, including affect regulation and interpersonal functioning, with identity diffusion being the only exception. Most participants had histories of developmental trauma and multiple traumas. These findings suggest that MDMA-assisted therapy enhances psychological capacities that are often linked to poor treatment outcomes, offering insight into how psychedelic agents may reduce PTSD symptoms.
Journal of Psychopharmacology
June 21, 2022
T. Ching, Monnica T. Williams, Julie B. Wang et al.
29 citations
In a pooled analysis of two Phase 2 open-label trials and one Phase 3 randomized placebo-controlled trial of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD, no significant difference in symptom reduction was found between BIPOC and non-Hispanic White participants who received MDMA. Among those given placebo-assisted therapy, BIPOC participants showed a trend toward greater improvement than non-Hispanic Whites. Non-Hispanic Whites had significantly larger reductions in PTSD symptoms with MDMA than with placebo, but no such treatment difference emerged among BIPOC participants. Adverse events were mostly mild or moderate across all groups. The findings suggest MDMA-assisted therapy is effective and safe across ethnoracial groups, though subgroup sizes were imbalanced.
Journal of Humanistic Psychology
June 23, 2021
Julie B. Wang, Jessica Lin, Leah Bedrosian et al.
22 citations
MDMA-assisted therapy (MDMA-AT) can be scaled across multiple clinic sites while maintaining high treatment fidelity. In an open-label study across 14 North American sites, cotherapist dyads were trained in a manualized protocol and administered three experimental sessions to participants with severe PTSD. Adherence to the therapy protocol was high across both dyads and sites. PTSD symptom severity, measured by the CAPS-5, decreased substantially after three sessions at 18 weeks. MDMA was well tolerated. These results indicate that the benefits of MDMA-AT for PTSD can be achieved in a multi-site, real-world clinical setting.
Journal of humanistic psychology
February 10, 2022
Terence H. W. Ching, Monnica T. Williams, S. Reed et al.
10 citations
A mixed-methods case study examined whether a person of color with treatment-resistant PTSD would benefit from MDMA-assisted therapy (MDMA-AT) as much as participants in earlier, less diverse trials. The participant showed quantitative improvement in PTSD symptoms. An interpretative phenomenological analysis of therapy session transcripts revealed recurrent themes related to psychological mechanisms of symptom change, reduced PTSD symptoms, and additional positive and negative effects beyond symptom reduction. The authors discuss these themes and offer recommendations for addressing culturally relevant material during MDMA-AT.
medRxiv Preprint Server
May 25, 2022
S. Parker Singleton, Julie B. Wang, Michael Mithoefer et al.
9 citations
preprint
In nine veterans and first-responders with chronic PTSD, MDMA-assisted therapy did not significantly increase amygdala-hippocampus resting-state functional connectivity as hypothesized, only showing a trend. After treatment, activation in the cuneus decreased when recalling traumatic versus neutral memories. The amount of PTSD recovery correlated with changes in four functional connections during autobiographical memory recall: left amygdala with left and right posterior cingulate cortex and left insula, and left isthmus cingulate with left posterior hippocampus. These findings suggest that MDMA-AT may alter functional connectivity in brain regions involved in memory and fear processing, but more research is needed to determine if these effects are specific to MDMA-AT compared to other PTSD treatments.
medRxiv Preprint Server
January 3, 2023
Bessel A. van der Kolk, Julie B. Wang, Rachel Yehuda et al.
2 citations
preprint
A Phase 3 clinical trial tested MDMA-assisted therapy (MDMA-AT) against placebo with therapy for severe PTSD. 85% of participants reported early childhood trauma, linked to deficits in emotional coping. MDMA-AT significantly improved alexithymia, self-compassion, and altered self-capacities compared to therapy alone. These changes address transdiagnostic mental processes that often hinder treatment response.