ArticleJournal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England)2021
Acute effects of MDMA on trust, cooperative behaviour and empathy: A double-blind, placebo-controlled experiment.
Article in Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England), 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 35 citations in OpenAlex.
- Adverse events in clinical treatments with serotonergic psychedelics and MDMA: A mixed-methods systematic review.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- The empathogen 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, but not methamphetamine, increases feelings of global trust.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2026Trial
- The 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine enhances early visual processing for salient socio-emotional stimuli.The European journal of neuroscience · 2024Trial
- A neurocognitive account of complex PTSD: self-modelling, affective dysregulation, and implications for MDMA-assisted and targeted psychotherapies.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Review
- Subjective and neurocognitive profiling of clinical doses of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) in healthy volunteers: implications for therapeutic use.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Review
- Monday mood decline after weekend ecstasy use: A retrospective analysis of daily diary reports.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2026Article
- Case Report: Amplified psychoanalysis? Psychoanalysis, OCD and MDMA in a clinical case study.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Investigational psilocybin treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder: a qualitative study of participant experience, trauma engagement, and differences from standard treatment.EClinicalMedicine · 2025Article
- Not so great expectations: The role of price and name information in the nocebo effect.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2025Article
- Teacher-student empathic relationship shaping: an elimination mechanism for psychological segmentations in entrepreneurship education.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- MDMA enhances empathy-like behaviors in mice via 5-HT release in the nucleus accumbens.Science advances · 2024Article
- The conceptual framework for the therapeutic approach used in phase 3 trials of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- The Psychedelic Future of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Treatment.Current neuropharmacology · 2024Review
- Exploring the subjective experience of rave party participants in Israel who consume psychedelic drugs: a qualitative inquiry.Harm reduction journal · 2023Article
- Can psychedelics enhance group psychotherapy? A discussion on the therapeutic factors.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2023Article
- Social anxiety and MDMA-assisted therapy investigation: a novel clinical trial protocol.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- The intersection of empathy and addiction.Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2023Review
- MDMA administration attenuates hippocampal IL-β immunoreactivity and subsequent stress-enhanced fear learning: An animal model of PTSD.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2022Article
- 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
17 authors at 9 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
background3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is being actively researched as an adjunct to psychotherapy. It may be beneficial to trust, empathy and cooperative behaviour due to its acute prosocial effects.
aimTo test (a) the acute effects of MDMA on measures of empathy, trust and cooperative behaviour, and (b) subacute changes in mood three days after MDMA administration.
methodsTwenty-five participants (
resultsMDMA acutely increased self-reported 'closeness to others' and 'euphoria' and increased plasma concentrations of MDMA. MDMA did not significantly change task-based empathy, trust or cooperative behaviour. Using Bayesian analyses, we found evidence that MDMA and placebo did not differ in their effects on empathy and cooperative behaviour. MDMA did not significantly change subacute mood and this was supported by our Bayesian analyses.
conclusionDespite augmentation in plasma MDMA levels and subjective drug effects, we found no increase in prosocial behaviour in a laboratory setting.
Indexed as
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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.