Getting In Touch with Touch: The Importance of Studying Touch in MDMA-Assisted Therapy and the Development of a New Self-Report Measure
Jason B Luoma, Luke Roy Allen, Veronika Gold et al. 1 citation preprint
MDMA is being tested as an adjunct to psychotherapy in controlled trials, including two completed Phase 3 trials, and could become a legally available medicine for MDMA-assisted therapy (MDMA-AT) within a few years. The treatment manual for MDMA-AT research considers touch an important part of therapy, but no empirical evaluation has examined how touch functions in MDMA-AT, and research on touch in psychotherapy generally is scarce. Concerns exist that touch combined with MDMA could intensify power imbalances or contribute to boundary crossings and unethical behavior.