ArticleTranslational psychiatry2015
3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine facilitates fear extinction learning.
Article in Translational psychiatry, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 82 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
82 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 132 citations in OpenAlex.
- MDMA and memory, addiction, and depression: dose-effect analysis.Psychopharmacology · 2022Pooled it
- MDMA for the treatment of misophonia, a proposal.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- A randomized controlled trial of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and fear extinction retention in healthy adults.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2022Trial
- MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for treatment of anxiety and other psychological distress related to life-threatening illnesses: a randomized pilot study.Scientific reports · 2020Trial
- Long-term follow-up outcomes of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for treatment of PTSD: a longitudinal pooled analysis of six phase 2 trials.Psychopharmacology · 2020Trial
- MDMA Impairs Both the Encoding and Retrieval of Emotional Recollections.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2018Trial
- A neurocognitive account of complex PTSD: self-modelling, affective dysregulation, and implications for MDMA-assisted and targeted psychotherapies.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Review
- αMolecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- A novel finding on sex-dependent diverse behavioral responses to the anticipation of a threat in a rat model of fear conditioning with the involvement of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the prefrontal cortex.Learning & behavior · 2026Article
- MDMA alters fear extinction, and reduces alcohol consumption in inbred alcohol preferring iP rats but not outbred Wistar rats.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Brain-targeted epigenetic effects of two emerging psychoplastogens: ketamine & MDMA.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- History, pharmacology and therapeutic mechanisms of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA).British journal of pharmacology · 2026Review
- Circuit-informed modulation of traumatic memory in PTSD: integrating extinction, suppression, and reconsolidation.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Review
- Investigational drugs in PTSD.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Review
- The helioscope effect: A new framework for evaluating trauma-related memory processing in psychedelic experiences.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- Lifetime MDMA use and associations with meaning in life in the context of childhood trauma.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Methylone promotes neurite outgrowth and has long-lasting effects on fear extinction learning.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Pharmacological Evaluation of Tropane Analogues at the Serotonin Transporter.ACS chemical neuroscience · 2025Article
- Psychedelic Drugs in Mental Disorders: Current Clinical Scope and Deep Learning-Based Advanced Perspectives.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Review
22 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Acutely administered 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, 'ecstasy') has been proposed to have long-term positive effects on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms when combined with psychotherapy. No preclinical data support a mechanistic basis for these claims. Given the persistent nature of psychotherapeutic gains facilitated by MDMA, we hypothesized that MDMA improves fear extinction learning, a key process in exposure-based therapies for PTSD. In these experiments, mice were first exposed to cued fear conditioning and treated with drug vehicle or MDMA before extinction training 2 days later. MDMA was administered systemically and also directly targeted to brain structures known to contribute to extinction. In addition to behavioral measures of extinction, changes in mRNA levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (Bdnf) and Fos were measured after MDMA treatment and extinction. MDMA (7.8 mg kg(-1)) persistently and robustly enhanced long-term extinction when administered before extinction training. MDMA increased the expression of Fos in the amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), whereas increases in Bdnf expression were observed only in the amygdala after extinction training. Extinction enhancements were recapitulated when MDMA (1 μg) was infused directly into the basolateral complex of the amygdala (BLA), and enhancement was abolished when BDNF signaling was inhibited before extinction. These findings suggest that MDMA enhances fear memory extinction through a BDNF-dependent mechanism, and that MDMA may be a useful adjunct to exposure-based therapies for PTSD and other anxiety disorders characterized by altered fear learning.
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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.