Ecstasy approved for medical study

[Chicago Democrat]

Ecstasy approved for medical study
Wednesday, February 25, 2004 Posted: 11:06 PM EST (0406 GMT)


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A South Carolina psychiatrist said Wednesday he will immediately start recruiting patients after winning approval to conduct the first study testing MDMA -- better known as ecstasy -- as a therapeutic tool.

Dr. Michael Mithoefer plans to conduct psychotherapy sessions with 20 women who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder due to sexual assaults or other violence, and who haven't been helped by other treatment. Twelve of the women will receive MDMA prior to the sessions while eight will be given a placebo.

The Food and Drug Administration approved Mithoefer's protocol in 2001, but it took another two years to find an institutional review board willing to sanction the study, which is a required step when dealing with human research subjects.

Mithoefer's research required approval from the Drug Enforcement Administration because MDMA is a Schedule I drug. It's grouped with drugs like heroin, cocaine and LSD, all considered to have no medical use.

Bill Grant, a spokesman for the DEA, said the final approval came Tuesday night.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/02/25/ecstasy.study/index.html

[thebigidea]

1. my one brief teenage study resulted in one puked up Icee and little else.

[KissMyAsscroft]

2. It was widely used before it was made illegal...

It used to be used for a wide variety of treatments...

[truthisfreedom]

3. that sounds interesting, actually.

i doubt that the results will be negative. x seems to make almost anyone feel better for a while.

[ze_dscherman]

4. It's not for "making feel better for a while"

Used like that, MDMA would just be a "psychologic makeup" - of no value in therapeutic treatment. Instead, it's used to facilitate the therapeutic process. Interesting approach!

[truthisfreedom]

6. sounds like the same thing to me.

lasts long enough to facilitate the therputic process.

[Heyo]

5. One of the people....

...who helped lobby for this.. (she's not mentioned in the article, but has been on 48 hours about this plus the MTV special, and Discovery's "The Price of Ecstasy").. is a dear, dear friend of mine...

She's awesome.. the coolest person you'll ever meet.

Heyo