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MDMA to be tested on the terminally ill
Other | Friday 27th March 2015 | Christina
Over in America, the DEA has approved the use of MDMA in a clinical trial to treat the anxiety associated with terminal illness, due to its ability to induce euphoria and empathy. The drug been used in clinical trials before, including a study of the psychotherapeutic treatment of PTSD, to positive effect.
The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), who are conducting the trial, will test various doses of MDMA against a placebo on 18 participants, who have to have been diagnosed with a terminal illness, have anxiety associated with their illness, and have a life of expectancy of at least nine months. Psychotherapy treatment will also be used in conjunction with the drugs. The MDMA used in the trial is not the same gear swimming around clubs and festivals – this stuff will be synthesised, legally, in a lab, resulting in a much purer end product. One would imagine it’ll bring on a greater ecstatic high, and possibly a greater anxious comedown.
Brad Burge, director of communications at MAPS said that the arousal that MDMA produces, which can sometimes be experienced as anxiety when used in a recreational context, “can be used productively to assist the therapeutic process.” The use of MDMA in such studies represents a shift in attitude to the drug although widespread acceptance of MDMA as a form of medical treatment is still a long way off, on both sides of the Atlantic. As Burge says, “We would ultimately like research to be done that can show us the safest way to use drugs. As long as psychedelics are illegal, people will continue to use them in irresponsible ways, purchase them in black markets and not know what they're getting."
