The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has determined the drug technically known as 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) could have extremely positive affects on sufferers of PTSD.
The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) announced the FDA’s approval and now state trials will soon begin in the US to determine just how effective the drug is for treating PTSD.
And the controversial trail will begin to accept up to 300 participants at an unstated time in 2018 and will be held in the US, Canada and Israel. MAPS also hopes to have talks with European authorities to bring the trials over here.
Rick Doblin, Founder and Executive Director of MAPS, said: “For the first time ever, psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy will be evaluated in Phase 3 trials for possible prescription use, with MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD leading the way.”
But David Nutt, a neuropsychopharmacologist at Imperial College London, criticised the lacklustre response in finally approving ecstasy as a therapeutic drug.
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He told Science: “This is not a big scientific step. It’s been obvious for 40 years that these drugs are medicines. But it’s a huge step in acceptance.”
A previous study, which helped the FDA to approve the MDMA trials, from MAPS used MDMA-assisted psychotherapy to treat people who had suffered from PTSD for an average of 17.8 years.
After two months of treatment 61 per cent of participants had been cured of PTSD and after a year 68 per cent were rid of the psychological disorder.
One in three people who experience a traumatic experience are estimated to suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, according to the NHS, with victims or witnesses to serious or injury at risk of developing the condition.
It is especially prevalent in the armed forces, with armed forces mental health charity Combat Stress stating that they received more than 10,000 referrals in five years for soldiers with PTSD and other mental disorders following their participation in a war zone.
Current treatments include lengthy psychotherapy and the use of anti-depressants.