ReviewAnnals of general psychiatry2020
MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for people diagnosed with treatment-resistant PTSD: what it is and what it isn't.
Review in Annals of general psychiatry, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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
12 citing papers in PubMed, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- The role of RGS12 in tissue repair and human diseases.Genes & diseases · 2025Review
- Article
- Post-traumatic stress disorder: the role of the amygdala and potential therapeutic interventions - a review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Review
- MDMA-Based Psychotherapy in Treatment-Resistant Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): A Brief Narrative Overview of Current Evidence.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Enhancing Psychological Interventions for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Treatment with Memory Influencing Drugs.Current neuropharmacology · 2023Review
- MDMA administration attenuates hippocampal IL-β immunoreactivity and subsequent stress-enhanced fear learning: An animal model of PTSD.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2022Article
- MDMA treatment paired with a trauma-cue promotes adaptive stress responses in a translational model of PTSD in rats.Translational psychiatry · 2022Article
- Memory-directed acupuncture as a neuromodulatory treatment for PTSD: Theory, clinical model and case studies.Translational psychiatry · 2022Review
- Analysis of recreational psychedelic substance use experiences classified by substance.Psychopharmacology · 2022Article
- A proposed mechanism for the MDMA-mediated extinction of traumatic memories in PTSD patients treated with MDMA-assisted therapy.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Review
- Preliminary Results on the Long-Term Effects of Dextromethorphan on MDMA-Mediated Serotonergic Deficiency and Volumetric Changes in Primates Based on 4-[Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Article
- Deep Network Pharmacology: Targeting Glutamate Systems as Integrative Treatments for Jump-Starting Neural Networks and Recovery Trajectories.Journal of psychiatry and brain science · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPTSD is a chronic condition with high rates of comorbidity, but current treatment options are limited and not always effective. One novel approach is MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for people diagnosed with treatment-resistant PTSD, where MDMA is used as a catalyst to facilitate trauma processing during psychotherapy. The aim was to review all current research into MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD.
methodsArticles were identified through PubMed and Science Direct for items published up to 31st March 2019 using terms "treatments for PTSD", "drug treatments for PTSD", "MDMA", "MDMA pathway", "MDMA-assisted psychotherapy" and "MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD". Articles were identified through Google Scholar and subject-specific websites. Articles and relevant references cited in those articles were reviewed.
resultsSmall-scale studies have shown reduced psychological trauma, however there has been widespread misunderstanding of the aims and implications of this work, most commonly the notion that MDMA is a 'treatment for PTSD', which to date has not been researched. This has harmful consequences, namely dangerous media reporting and impeding research progression in an already controversial field.
conclusionsMDMA-assisted psychotherapy may help people who have experienced psychological trauma and who have not been able to resolve their problems through existing treatments, however more research is needed. If this is to get appropriate research attention, we must report this accurately and objectively.
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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.