The controversial drug can now be used in a study designed to synthetize the components that reduce anxiety among people with cancer or other life threatening disease. Ecstasy is well known as an energy and mood enhancer, thus may help seriously ill patients who are facing deep depressions or anxiety attacks, by boosting their energy levels.
More that twelve people with life threatening diseases will participate in a trial over the next year in Santa Cruz and they will benefit from an exclusive treatment along with therapy sessions that include ecstasy as medication.
Each subject will be given either a full dose of MDMA or an active placebo dose of 30 milligrams.
Brad Burge, spokesman for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies in Santa Cruz declared that the goal of this trial is to assess whether very ill patients who suffer from debilitating anxiety can find a bubble of peace during the extended psychotherapy sessions.
The study will be conducted by Dr. Philip Wolfson, a psychiatrist and advocate of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. Over the next year, a limited group of patients will go under his special treatment, set in a cozy hilltop psychotherapy center overlooking Mount Tamalpais.
Wolfson has a very personal history when it comes to the unconventional MDMA therapy. Together with his wife they have gone through this special kind of treatment, as an efficient measure to manage deep depression and sadness after the loss of their sun who battled leukemia. The therapy proved to be efficient in their case back then, which made Wolfson go further with supporting a good cause for special cases.
Ecstasy is the jargon for the psychoactive MDMA which now turns to be an efficient alternative treatment for anxiety. Depression and anxiety are traditionally treated with drugs that calm down and sedate the body, while MDMA has rather psychedelic effects on the brain, which takes conventional therapies to another level. Wolfson declares that a four or five hour psychedelic journey with MDMA can be “transformationally” potent when used in a comfortable setting with a pair of trained therapists.
According to extensive studies and analysis, MDMA proves to be a very efficient treatment that supports “deep, meaningful and rapidly effective psychotherapy”. There is a previous study that can be used as evidence for the success of Ecstasy in psychological treatments. In 2010, the drug was used on a high number of patients who suffered from PTSD. After undergoing therapy, 83% of those who went along with the treatment got better. A follow-up study in 2012 confirmed that those who used the drug in assisted therapy remained symptom free.
Image Source: ecstasyabuse.com
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