PTSD treatment: MDMA, active ingredient in Ecstasy, shows great promise in severe cases
- Pharmaceutical grade MDMA can be used with psychotherapy to help patients with a severe form of PTSD
- MDMA is a Schedule I controlled substance in the US, with no accepted medical use, but therapists are hoping to change this
The first time Lori Tipton tried MDMA, she was doubtful it would make a difference. “I was really very nervous at the beginning,” she says.
MDMA is the active ingredient in the club drug known as Ecstasy. But Tipton wasn’t taking pills sold on the street to get high. She was trying to treat her post-traumatic stress disorder by taking part in a clinical trial.
After taking a dose of pure MDMA, Tipton lay in a quiet room with two specially trained psychotherapists. They sat next to her as she recalled some of her deepest traumas, such as discovering her mother’s body after Tipton’s mother killed two people and then herself in a murder-suicide.
“In the embrace of MDMA,” Tipton says, she could revisit that moment without the usual terror and panic. “I was able to find such empathy for myself.”
