MDMA, a safe and effective treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Recently, a major discovery by Curry et al. flew under the radar. Here are three takeaways from the publication to tell your friends about, also known as TLDR.

• There exist three versions of MDMA: S-MDMA, R-MDMA, and a combination of both, SR-MDMA.
• SR-MDMA and S-MDMA have both positive and negative effects.
• R-MDMA has only positive effects in mice and could be therapeutic for illnesses caused by traumatic stress, such as PTSD.

3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is a widely known recreational drug that enhances positive feelings and social behaviors. People tend to describe it as a feel-good drug.

Yet, MDMA is quite dangerous. Not only can it cause death due to increased body temperatures (hyperthermia), but it also increases the amount of toxicity in the brain by altering essential neuron helper cells (astrocytes). Additionally, the same signaling pathway that is responsible for the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease, is decreased in mice treated with MDMA. So, MDMA can induce death, neurotoxicity, and signaling deficits. Oh, did I mention that when you purchase MDMA, it’s likely mixed with other drugs (1).

However, as mentioned, MDMA has many positive attributes, like its ability to significantly improve mood, which is what makes it such a popular party drug. In mice, MDMA improved social interactions and lessened traumatic stress. When discussing MDMA, we are referring to SR-MDMA, a mixture of the two forms of MDMA: S-MDMA and R-MDMA. Previous evidence led our authors to believe that R-MDMA may provide beneficial effects on its own, so this study focused on investigating the positive or negative effects of R-MDMA treatment alone in mice. R-MDMA showed none of the negative effects that are typically observed in mice treated with MDMA:

• Increase in body temperature
• Signs of neurotoxicity
• Effect on the Parkinson’s Disease signaling pathway

Upon testing the positive benefits of R-MDMA, they found increased social interactions and decreased traumatic stress. Specifically, after mice received electric shocks in Box A, mice were returned to Box A with or without receiving R-MDMA treatment. Shocks did not occur this time, but the amount of time spent immobile, afraid, was measured. The mice who received R-MDMA spent significantly less time frozen still than the mice who received no treatment. Thus, the mice who received R-MDMA forgot the traumatic experience of the electric shocks they received from box A due to the mood-enhancing effects of R-MDMA, a major step towards treatments for PTSD and its detrimental effects on healthy living after trauma.

Considering that R-MDMA has none of the standard negative effects of common MDMA, R-MDMA should be moved forward in clinical trials using species more similar to humans, like primates, as a treatment for PTSD.

This study asked the question, does treatment with R-MDMA by itself have beneficial effects in removing traumatic experiences without the harmful effects of SR-MDMA? The answer is undoubtedly yes.

Hopefully, we may begin guided therapies with MDMA to help patients overcome severely traumatic experiences. Whether the trauma is from combat, domestic abuse, or an assault, there are solutions. Currently, the only thing holding us back from treatments is the outdated scheduling of these drugs during the War on Drugs Era. Because of their dangerous scheduling, research is limited and hard to begin. Even with the little research out there, it’s clear that drugs like MDMA, ketamine, psilocybin, and lysergic acid can be beneficial when taken under the supervision of professionals in guided therapy sessions.

I hope you enjoyed reading. My Album recommendation for the week is Maggot Brain by Funkadelic.

REFERENCES

1. Erowid, DrugsData / EcstasyData /. “Test Result Statistics: Samples Sold as Ecstasy, Molly, MDMA : Summary Data.” DrugsData, https://www.drugsdata.org/stats.php.
2. Curry, D. W., Young, M. B., Tran, A. N., Daoud, G. E., & Howell, L. L. (2018). Separating the agony from ecstasy: R(-)-3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine has prosocial and therapeutic-like effects without signs of neurotoxicity in mice. Neuropharmacology, 128, 196-206. doi:10.1016/j.neuropharm.2017.10.003