Summary:

MDMA-assisted psychotherapy has shown promise as a safe and effective treatment for individuals with chronic, treatment-refractory PTSD. Several studies have demonstrated its efficacy and safety, although more research is needed to fully understand its place in contemporary therapy and its underlying mechanisms.

Studies:

“MDMA-assisted psychotherapy appears to be a potentially safe, effective, and durable treatment for individuals with chronic, treatment-refractory PTSD.”

Study name: Efficacy of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)-assisted psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Published in: Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry
Authors: A. Bahji et al.
Date published: 2020

“These data indicate that, compared with manualized therapy with inactive placebo, MDMA-assisted therapy is highly efficacious in individuals with severe PTSD, and treatment is safe and well-tolerated, even in those with comorbidities.”

Study name: MDMA-assisted therapy for severe PTSD: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 3 study
Published in: Nature Medicine
Authors: Jennifer M. Mitchell et al.
Date published: 2021

“These findings corroborate previous results that MDMA-AT can achieve significant improvements in PTSD symptom severity and demonstrate scalability of manualized therapy across clinic sites in the United States and Canada.”

Study name: Scaling Up: Multisite Open-Label Clinical Trials of MDMA-Assisted Therapy for Severe Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Published in: Journal of Humanistic Psychology
Authors: Julie B. Wang et al.
Date published: 2021

“While MDMA‐assisted psychotherapy has been shown to be an effective therapy for patients with PTSD with a reasonable safety profile, use of unregulated MDMA or use in the absence of a strongly controlled psychotherapeutic environment has considerable risks.”

Study name: MDMA‐Assisted Psychotherapy for Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Systematic Review With Meta‐Analysis
Published in: The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology
Authors: Kimberly W Smith et al.
Date published: 2021

“MDMA-assisted psychotherapy may be an effective therapy in refractory PTSD but needs further evaluation to determine its place in contemporary therapy.”

Study name: 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine’s (MDMA’s) Impact on Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Published in: Annals of Pharmacotherapy
Authors: C. White et al.
Date published: 2014

“MDMA-assisted therapy has an impressive effect size in reducing PTSD symptoms, but more research is needed due to the small number of participants included.”

Study name: Pharmacological-assisted Psychotherapy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Published in: European Journal of Psychotraumatology
Authors: M. Hoskins et al.
Date published: 2021

“Despite its efficacy in PTSD and anxiety, MDMA did not reduce either the subjective or objective responses to stress in this controlled study.”

Study name: MDMA does not alter responses to the Trier Social Stress Test in humans
Published in: Psychopharmacology
Authors: A. Bershad et al.
Date published: 2017

“MDMA-assisted psychotherapy is being researched as a potential treatment for PTSD, anxiety associated with autism, and alcohol use disorder, and if clinical efficacy criteria are achieved, MDMA could become a licensed medicine by the FDA and EMA in 2021.”

Study name: A Review of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)-Assisted Psychotherapy
Published in: Frontiers in Psychiatry
Authors: B. Sessa et al.
Date published: 2019

“Fear extinction and memory reconsolidation could possibly be mechanisms underlying the beneficial outcomes of MDMA‐assisted psychotherapy for reducing PTSD symptoms.”

Study name: MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD: Are memory reconsolidation and fear extinction underlying mechanisms?
Published in: Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry
Authors: A. Feduccia et al.
Date published: 2018

“MDMA-assisted psychotherapy may help people with treatment-resistant PTSD, but accurate and objective reporting is necessary for appropriate research attention.”

Study name: MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for people diagnosed with treatment-resistant PTSD: what it is and what it isn’t
Published in: Annals of General Psychiatry
Authors: L. Morgan et al.
Date published: 2020

“MDMA-assisted psychotherapy was efficacious and well tolerated in a large sample of adults with PTSD.”

Study name: MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for treatment of PTSD: study design and rationale for phase 3 trials based on pooled analysis of six phase 2 randomized controlled trials
Published in: Psychopharmacology
Authors: M. Mithoefer et al.
Date published: 2019

“MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD resulted in large reductions in clinical symptoms and increased posttraumatic growth, indicating that PTG may be a new mechanism of action that requires further investigation.”

Study name: Posttraumatic Growth After MDMA‐Assisted Psychotherapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Published in: Journal of Traumatic Stress
Authors: I. Gorman et al.
Date published: 2020

“Findings show promising evidence for the potential therapeutic use of MDMA alongside psychotherapy in the treatment of PTSD.”

Study name: The Efficacy of MDMA (3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine) for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder in Humans: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Published in: Cureus
Authors: Sarah Tedesco et al.
Date published: 2021

“MDMA holds promise as a facilitator of CBCT to achieve more robust and broad effects on individual and relational functioning in those with PTSD and their partners.”

Study name: MDMA-facilitated cognitive-behavioural conjoint therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder: an uncontrolled trial
Published in: European Journal of Psychotraumatology
Authors: C. Monson et al.
Date published: 2020

“It was promising that we found the majority of these subjects with previously severe PTSD who were unresponsive to existing treatments had symptomatic relief provided by MDMA-assisted psychotherapy that persisted over time, with no subjects reporting harm from participation in the study.”

Study name: Durability of improvement in post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and absence of harmful effects or drug dependency after 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine-assisted psychotherapy: a prospective long-term follow-up study
Published in: Journal of Psychopharmacology (Oxford, England)
Authors: M. Mithoefer et al.
Date published: 2013