Trial reportNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2018
MDMA Impairs Both the Encoding and Retrieval of Emotional Recollections.
Trial report in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT05546658 (Effects of Psilocybin in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), which is not on this map. Cited by 25 papers, 2 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.
Effects of Psilocybin in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 72 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cognitive functioning associated with acute and subacute effects of classic psychedelics and MDMA - a systematic review and meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2024Pooled it
- Pooled it
- The 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine enhances early visual processing for salient socio-emotional stimuli.The European journal of neuroscience · 2024Trial
- Subjective and neurocognitive profiling of clinical doses of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) in healthy volunteers: implications for therapeutic use.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Review
- 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
- MDMA-Assisted Treatment for PTSD, Anxiety, and Depression: A Visualized Literature Analysis over 30 Years.Current medicinal chemistry · 2026Review
- Recalled childhood trauma and post-psychedelic trajectories of change in a mixed-methods study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Ayahuasca enhances the formation of hippocampal-dependent episodic memory without impacting false memory susceptibility in experienced ayahuasca users: An observational study.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2025Observational
- Review
- MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD in adolescents: rationale, potential, risks, and considerations.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2024Review
- Co-administration of midazolam and psilocybin: differential effects on subjective quality versus memory of the psychedelic experience.Translational psychiatry · 2024Article
- Social Psychopharmacology: Novel Approaches to Treat Deficits in Social Motivation in Schizophrenia.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2023Review
- The acute effects of psychoactive drugs on emotional episodic memory encoding, consolidation, and retrieval: A comprehensive review.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2023Review
- Potential processes of change in MDMA-Assisted therapy for social anxiety disorder: Enhanced memory reconsolidation, self-transcendence, and therapeutic relationships.Human psychopharmacology · 2022Review
- Models of psychedelic drug action: modulation of cortical-subcortical circuits.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2022Article
- Virtual Reality as a Moderator of Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Review
- Altered brain activity and functional connectivity after MDMA-assisted therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- Beyond ecstasy: Alternative entactogens to 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine with potential applications in psychotherapy.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2021Review
- Use and abuse of dissociative and psychedelic drugs in adolescence.Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2021Review
- Couple Therapy With MDMA-Proposed Pathways of Action.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Review
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
The psychoactive drug ±3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is increasingly used for its perceived emotional effects (eg, prosociality, empathy, psychotherapy), but surprisingly little research has been aimed at identifying the effect of the drug on emotional episodic memory in humans. Here, we report the first double-blind placebo-controlled study to examine the effects of MDMA on emotional memory separately during encoding and retrieval in healthy participants. Participants viewed emotionally negative, neutral, and positive pictures and their labels. Forty-eight hours later, they were given cued recollection and recognition memory tests designed to assess recollection and familiarity for the studied pictures. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups who received MDMA (1 mg/kg) either during encoding (Encoding group; N=20), retrieval (Retrieval group; N=20), or neither (Placebo group; N=20). Although MDMA administered at either phase did not affect overall memory accuracy, it did alter the recollection of details associated specifically with emotional memories as estimated using a dual process signal detection analysis of confidence judgments and subjective 'remember' judgments. In the Encoding group, MDMA reduced recollection estimates for negative and positive pictures but had little to no effect on neutral items or familiarity estimates. There was evidence for similar trends in the Retrieval group. These findings indicate that MDMA attenuates the encoding and retrieval of salient details from emotional events, consistent with the idea that its potential therapeutic effects for treating posttraumatic stress disorder are related to altering emotional memory.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.