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Two or three years ago I read a preliminary (and very small) study of patients with extreme PTSD undergoing experimental treatments using ecstasy. Actually, ecstasy is more the street name, the trial used pure MDMA (the active ingredient in ecstasy).
The small study did show some very positive things. Some of the patients, those who couldn't even begin to deal with their problems, were able to more calmly go over the traumatic events that happened to them and were able to try and explain the horrors of what they witnessed. The MDMA provided a very relaxed, positive environment for the patient and a lot of very good progress was made.
There are some key things to understand, though. The MDMA was not given like a prescription. It was used in a highly controlled environment just prior to therapy sessions with a VERY low dosage. The study was very, very small (maybe 10 people?) so there was no decent statistical evidence other than a very small sampling of people with the most extreme cases of PTSD to work with. Long term effects and the effects of this on a larger sampling of people have yet to be seen but, for the volunteers in the trial, they were so desperate they were willing to try anything.
The angle this is being approached with is very different than that of, say, medical marijuana. It's more analogous to a dentist giving a patient "laughing gas" prior to drilling than it is to a doctor prescribing medical marijuana for a stubbed toe.
I have a mild form of PTSD. I don't want to imagine a severe form of PTSD. Not sure about using such a drug. The goal of counseling is to get the patient to recover and be able to function on a daily basis without resorting to such drugs. I'm on an antidepressant but that's unrelated to my PTSD. Suffered clinical depression since puberty at the earliest. Has gotten worse as I got older so I sought help. People who've never experienced PTSD can't imagine what it's like. I know because my dad had it and I didn't understand why he jumped when I closed the car door or closed a cabinet door loudly. Nor did I understand other things about his behavior. I now have all those things plus a few more.
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