Trial reportJournal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England)2017
Therapeutic effect of increased openness: Investigating mechanism of action in MDMA-assisted psychotherapy.
Trial report in Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England), 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 60 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
60 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 159 citations in OpenAlex.
- Drug-drug interactions between psychiatric medications and MDMA or psilocybin: a systematic review.Psychopharmacology · 2022Pooled it
- MDMA and memory, addiction, and depression: dose-effect analysis.Psychopharmacology · 2022Pooled it
- Psychedelic Treatments for Psychiatric Disorders: A Systematic Review and Thematic Synthesis of Patient Experiences in Qualitative Studies.CNS drugs · 2020Pooled it
- Prospective preference assessment for the Ecstasy for Alleviating Severe Chronic Neuropathic Pain (EASE-Pain) trial.Canadian journal of anaesthesia = Journal canadien d'anesthesie · 2025Trial
- Pharmacological and non-pharmacological predictors of the LSD experience in healthy participants.Translational psychiatry · 2024Trial
- Long-term follow-up outcomes of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for treatment of PTSD: a longitudinal pooled analysis of six phase 2 trials.Psychopharmacology · 2020Trial
- Posttraumatic Growth After MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.Journal of traumatic stress · 2020Trial
- Effects of MDMA on attention to positive social cues and pleasantness of affective touch.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2019Trial
- Psilocybin-occasioned mystical-type experience in combination with meditation and other spiritual practices produces enduring positive changes in psychological functioning and in trait measures of prosocial attitudes and behaviors.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2018Trial
- Subjective and neurocognitive profiling of clinical doses of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) in healthy volunteers: implications for therapeutic use.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Review
- Development of the MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy Side Effects Tool (M-SET): a Delphi study.BMJ open · 2026Article
- The helioscope effect: A new framework for evaluating trauma-related memory processing in psychedelic experiences.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- Making a case for using MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for borderline personality disorder and complex PTSD: a descriptive systematic review of the literature.Therapeutic advances in psychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Decreased COCommunications psychology · 2025Article
- The METEMP protocol: Massed exposure therapy enhanced with MDMA for PTSD.Contemporary clinical trials communications · 2025Article
- Recreational MDMA use in Norway: results from an internet convenience sample.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Bringing MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD to traditional healthcare systems: tending to set and setting.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Psychoanalytically informed MDMA-assisted therapy for pathological narcissism: a novel theoretical approach.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- My Bad, You Got This: witnessing, therapist attitude and the synergy between psychedelics and inner healing intelligence in the treatment of trauma.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Psychedelic iatrogenic structural dissociation: an exploratory hypothesis on dissociative risks in psychedelic use.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A growing body of research suggests that traumatic events lead to persisting personality change characterized by increased neuroticism. Relevantly, enduring improvements in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms have been found in response to 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)-assisted psychotherapy. There is evidence that lasting changes in the personality feature of "openness" occur in response to hallucinogens, and that this may potentially act as a therapeutic mechanism of change. The present study investigated whether heightened Openness and decreased Neuroticism served as a mechanism of change within a randomized trial of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for chronic, treatment-resistant PTSD. The Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) Global Scores and NEO PI-R Personality Inventory (NEO) Openness and Neuroticism Scales served as outcome measures. Results indicated that changes in Openness but not Neuroticism played a moderating role in the relationship between reduced PTSD symptoms and MDMA treatment. Following MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, increased Openness and decreased Neuroticism when comparing baseline personality traits with long-term follow-up traits also were found. These preliminary findings suggest that the effect of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy extends beyond specific PTSD symptomatology and fundamentally alters personality structure, resulting in long-term persisting personality change. Results are discussed in terms of possible mechanisms of psychotherapeutic change.
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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.