ArticleTrials2024
Effect of MDMA-assisted therapy on mood and anxiety symptoms in advanced-stage cancer (EMMAC): study protocol for a double-blind, randomised controlled trial.
Article in Trials, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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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
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Exploring MDMA assisted therapy in eating disorders: mechanisms, clinical evidence, and future directions.Journal of eating disorders · 2025Review
- A Rapid Review of Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy in the Context of Palliative Care.Journal of hospice and palliative nursing : JHPN : the official journal of the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association · 2025Article
- Cosmology of belonging: The role of community in the therapeutic use of psychedelics.Palliative & supportive care · 2025Article
- Demoralization syndrome in elderly patients with advanced lung cancer: a multi-center study in North China.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSymptoms of anxiety and depression are common in patients with terminal illness and multiple challenges exist with timely and effective care in this population. Several centres have reported that one dose of the serotonergic psychedelic psilocybin, combined with therapeutic support, improves these symptoms for up to 6 months in this patient group. Drawing upon related therapeutic mechanisms, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)-assisted therapy may have the potential to achieve similar, positive mental health outcomes in this group. Preliminary evidence also supports the tolerability of MDMA-assisted therapy for anxiety and depression in advanced-stage cancer.
methodsUp to 32 participants with advanced-stage cancer and associated depression and anxiety will be randomised in a 1:1 ratio into one of two blinded parallel treatment arms. The intervention group will receive 120 mg (+ 60 mg optional supplemental dose) MDMA-assisted therapy. The psychoactive control group will receive 20 mg oral (+ 10 mg optional supplemental dose) methylphenidate-assisted therapy. For each medication-assisted therapy session, participants will undergo two 90-min therapeutic support sessions in the week preceding, and one 90-min support session the day after the experimental session. A battery of measures (mood, anxiety, quality of life, mystical experience, spiritual wellbeing, attitudes towards death, personality traits, holistic health and wellbeing, connectedness, demoralisation, expectations, qualitative data and safety measures) will be assessed at baseline and through to the end of the protocol. Participants will be followed up until either 12 months post-randomisation or death, whichever occurs first. DISCUSSION: This study will examine the effect of MDMA-assisted therapy on symptoms of anxiety and depression in advanced-stage cancer. Potential therapeutic implications include establishing the safety and effectiveness of a novel treatment that may relieve mental suffering in patients with life-threatening illness.
trial registrationTrial registered on Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry. REGISTRATION NUMBER: ACTRN12619001334190p. Date registered: 30/09/2019. URL: https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=378153&showOriginal=true&isReview=true.
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