ArticlePharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior2014
MDMA decreases the effects of simulated social rejection.
Article in Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 85 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic review: pain, cognition, and cardioprotection-unpacking oxytocin's contributions in a sport context.Frontiers in physiology · 2024Pooled it
- Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of the MDMA Model to Address Social Impairment in Autism.Current neuropharmacology · 2021Pooled it
- MDMA enhances positive affective responses to social feedback.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2024Trial
- Trial
- Therapeutic effect of increased openness: Investigating mechanism of action in MDMA-assisted psychotherapy.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2017Trial
- LSD Acutely Impairs Fear Recognition and Enhances Emotional Empathy and Sociality.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2016Trial
- Effects of serotonin 2A/1A receptor stimulation on social exclusion processing.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2016Trial
- Intimate insight: MDMA changes how people talk about significant others.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2015Trial
- No evidence that MDMA-induced enhancement of emotional empathy is related to peripheral oxytocin levels or 5-HT1a receptor activation.PloS one · 2014Trial
- Social Effort Discounting Reveals Domain-General and Social-Specific Motivation Components.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2025Article
- MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD in adolescents: rationale, potential, risks, and considerations.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2024Review
- Design and methodology of the first open-label trial of MDMA-assisted therapy for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and alcohol use disorder: Considerations for a randomized controlled trial.Contemporary clinical trials communications · 2024Article
- Altered States and Social Bonds: Effects of MDMA and Serotonergic Psychedelics on Social Behavior as a Mechanism Underlying Substance-Assisted Therapy.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2024Review
- MDMA for treatment of PTSD and neurorehabilitation in military populations.NeuroRehabilitation · 2024Review
- The Psychedelic Future of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Treatment.Current neuropharmacology · 2024Review
- From antidepressants and psychotherapy to oxytocin, vagus nerve stimulation, ketamine and psychedelics: how established and novel treatments can improve social functioning in major depression.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Review
- Social Psychopharmacology: Novel Approaches to Treat Deficits in Social Motivation in Schizophrenia.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2023Review
- Can psychedelics enhance group psychotherapy? A discussion on the therapeutic factors.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2023Article
- Examining associations between MDMA/ecstasy and classic psychedelic use and impairments in social functioning in a U.S. adult sample.Scientific reports · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
3-4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) increases self-reported positive social feelings and decreases the ability to detect social threat in faces, but its effects on experiences of social acceptance and rejection have not been determined. We examined how an acute dose of MDMA affects subjective and autonomic responses to simulated social acceptance and rejection. We predicted that MDMA would decrease subjective responses to rejection. On an exploratory basis, we also examined the effect of MDMA on respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), a measure of parasympathetic cardiac control often thought to index social engagement and emotional regulation. Over three sessions, healthy adult volunteers with previous MDMA experience (N=36) received capsules containing placebo, 0.75 or 1.5 mg/kg of MDMA under counter-balanced double-blind conditions. During expected peak drug effect, participants played two rounds of a virtual social simulation task called "Cyberball" during which they experienced acceptance in one round and rejection in the other. During the task we also obtained electrocardiograms (ECGs), from which we calculated RSA. After each round, participants answered questionnaires about their mood and self-esteem. As predicted, MDMA decreased the effect of simulated social rejection on self-reported mood and self-esteem and decreased perceived intensity of rejection, measured as the percent of ball tosses participants reported receiving. Consistent with its sympathomimetic properties, MDMA decreased RSA as compared to placebo. Our finding that MDMA decreases perceptions of rejection in simulated social situations extends previous results indicating that MDMA reduces perception of social threat in faces. Together these findings suggest a cognitive mechanism by which MDMA might produce pro-social behavior and feelings and how the drug might function as an adjunct to psychotherapy. These phenomena merit further study in non-simulated social environments.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.