Podcast 086 – “MDMA for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder”

Guest speaker: Michael Mithoefer PROGRAM NOTES: (Minutes : Seconds into program) 06:19 Michael tells a little about how his study came about and its current status. 08:27 Michael describes the screening, preparation, and flow of the experience for qualified participants. 11:56 "We were able to go back, retroactively, and offer MDMA to everybody that had gotten [only] the placebo so far." 14:06 "Everybody who’s gotten MDMA has had a significant improvement, either temporarily or sustained. More than half, the majority of people have had a very dramatic and sustained improvement." 18:35 "This is a pilot study, and we’re not really looking to prove efficacy. We’re looking to prove we can work safely with these subjects, and it has at least has a strong trend toward being effective." 22:48 A discussion about the neurotoxicity of MDMA. 23:12 "There is still a question about neurotixicity (or at least decreases in some neuro functions) with heavy recreational use. It looks like there probably is some effect, although that is still controversial. . . . It looks like [using MDMA] less than 50 times there is no effect. It is still not known if there is an effect higher than that." 28:31 "The question is about how sustainable is the effect. It really looks like, for some people, two sessions is enough to really, significantly heal PTSD." Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option