A meta-analytic analysis of the acute effects of MDMA on empathy and emotion recognition in humans
Scientific Reports November 29, 2025 Leehe Peled‐avron, Jacob S. Aday, Madeline M. Pantoni et al. 1 citation
MDMA enhances emotional empathy but reduces accuracy in recognizing negative facial expressions such as sadness, fear, and anger. No significant effects were found on cognitive empathy or recognition of happy expressions. These findings come from a meta-analysis of studies using the Multifaceted Empathy Test and the Facial Emotion Recognition Task. Understanding these nuanced effects may help optimize therapeutic applications and safety considerations for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, which is currently under regulatory review for post-traumatic stress disorder.