Found this on the
Economist web site regarding psychotherapeutic use of MDMA.
http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12792611
Quote...So the results of a clinical trial recently announced by Michael Mithoefer, a psychiatrist in Charleston, South Carolina, are encouraging. Twenty patients with PTSD who had resisted standard treatmentsâ€"including both Ms Westerfield and the security contractorâ€"were given an experimental drug in combination with psychotherapy. After just two sessions all of them reported dramatic improvement. The compound, methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA, is not new. Known as Ecstasy, it is illegal nearly everywhere.
Dr Mithoefer’s study is part of a broader resumption of research into the therapeutic uses of psychoactive compounds. Scientists in North America, Europe and Israel are studying the use of MDMA, LSD, hallucinogenic mushrooms, marijuana and other banned psychoactive substances in treating conditions such as anxiety, cluster headaches, addiction and obsessive-compulsive disorder. They are supported by private funds from a handful of organisations: the Beckley Foundation in Britain; the Heffter Research Institute and the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) in America...
I would think that the use of MDMA to treat PTSD would be at to great a cost. Improvement of PTSD symptoms yet destruction of massive amounts of serotonergic neurons is not something I would see as anything other than a very last option much like using amputation as a last resort.
Quote from: "Squid"I would think that the use of MDMA to treat PTSD would be at to great a cost. Improvement of PTSD symptoms yet destruction of massive amounts of serotonergic neurons is not something I would see as anything other than a very last option much like using amputation as a last resort.
There's no reason to suggest the limited use of psychoactive chemicals administered for clinical reasons should have a lasting negative effect on the brain. The only point of research we have now is from the people who've used far too much recreationally. I'm sure if medical grade substances were administered in practical doses, the instance of adverse side effects would be a lot lower than with with habitual or recreational users. Afterall, any drug, pharmaceutical or otherwise can react negatively with anyone.
If the eventual result is the majority of PTSD sufferers are cured, or at least improve health, with little risk, then i'm all for it.
Quote from: "Squid"I would think that the use of MDMA to treat PTSD would be at to great a cost. Improvement of PTSD symptoms yet destruction of massive amounts of serotonergic neurons is not something I would see as anything other than a very last option much like using amputation as a last resort.
Forgive my ignorance of serotonergic neurons, but once depleted can they be replenished? I would assume that any loss is not in one's best interest (damn you alcohol), whether or not they could regenerate themselves, though. From what I know of PTSD, a reprieve from its effects that MDMA is proposed to have may be worth the risk.
Between having a tumor the size of a bouncy ball in my brain and the bit of brain they had to remove - I need every damned part of my brain that's left. If MDMA messes with serotonergic neurons wouldn't it create depression issues?
Ah, the ghost of Dr. Leary pops up again.
In my own, erm, clinical trials with MDMA, I found it to be rather... unfulfilling. Not that I had anything to diagnose or treat, mind you... save boredom.
Neurons in the central nervous system, and that includes serotonergic neurons in the brain, do not regenerate except in a most extremely limited way once one has reached adulthood.
Quote from: "DennisK"Quote from: "Squid"I would think that the use of MDMA to treat PTSD would be at to great a cost. Improvement of PTSD symptoms yet destruction of massive amounts of serotonergic neurons is not something I would see as anything other than a very last option much like using amputation as a last resort.
Forgive my ignorance of serotonergic neurons, but once depleted can they be replenished? I would assume that any loss is not in one's best interest (damn you alcohol), whether or not they could regenerate themselves, though. From what I know of PTSD, a reprieve from its effects that MDMA is proposed to have may be worth the risk.
From all the literature I've read on experiments with MDMA much of the destruction stays even after years. Some new connections are made and limited growth is seen but it is still very destructive. I do not recollect the dose amounts so I'd have to go back and review the articles. Here's an image from some experiments done upon Macaques:
(https://www.happyatheistforum.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffaculty.washington.edu%2Fchudler%2Fgif%2F5htctx.jpg&hash=d3248f40d51ebad5349dfefc4112ed0a53d0e2ca)
I would like to find out the dosage in the human and primate experiments to compare the two. I don't doubt that plasticity aids in recovery from the damage but if it is used as a treatment, how long could they utilize it even with small doses?
There was a paper done similarly which focused on dopamingergic neurons and the results were devastating but the results were due to a mislabeled bottle which was not MDMA but meth. They retracted the paper on the dopaminergic toxicity but maintained that the evidence for serotonergic damage was still solid:
QuoteThis apparent labeling error does not call into question the results of multiple previous studies demonstrating the serotonin neurotoxic potential of MDMA in various animal species, including several nonhuman primate species (3-6, 8). Regarding the dopamine neurotoxic potential of MDMA in nonhuman primates, it remains possible that dose regimens in the range of those used by some humans, but different from those thus far tested, produce dopamine neurotoxicity in primates, as they do in rodents (9, 10). Moreover, lasting effects of MDMA on dopaminergic function in humans have recently been reported (11), and some humans with a history of MDMA abuse have developed Parkinsonism (12-14). However, until the dopamine neurotoxic potential of MDMA in primates can be examined more fully, this possibility remains uncertain.
Source - http://www.mdma.net/toxicity/retracted.html