Scaling Up: Multisite Open-Label Clinical Trials of MDMA-Assisted Therapy for Severe Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
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.