Treating posttraumatic stress disorder with MDMA-assisted psychotherapy: A preliminary meta-analysis and comparison to prolonged exposure therapy
Journal of Psychopharmacology April 26, 2016 Timothy Amoroso, Michael Workman 89 citations
For posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), MDMA-assisted psychotherapy (MDMA-AP) shows larger treatment effects than prolonged exposure (PE) therapy, the current standard. A meta-analysis comparing two MDMA-AP clinical trials with several PE trials found MDMA-AP had larger effect sizes for clinician-observed outcomes (Hedges' g = 1.17 vs. 1.08) and patient self-report outcomes (Hedges' g = 0.87 vs. 0.77). MDMA-AP also had a considerably lower dropout rate than PE. These results suggest MDMA-AP offers a promising alternative for PTSD treatment, especially for patients who find PE intolerable or ineffective.