MDMA & PTSD

Just listened to this extremely interesting lecture on the Commonwealth Club website and was wondering about the relationship between MDMA therapy for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and so-called "power therapies" like EMT and EMDR?:

http://www.commonwealthclub.org/node/82166

It sounds to this layman that MDMA is able to create the same states of consciousness that Peter Levine uses to have his patients re-experience, shake off and reintegrate their original trauma and hence eliminate PTSD. Dr Richard Rockefeller's claims for an up to 80% improvement rate in patients with moderate to severe PTSD using the drug MDMA in a controlled psychotherapeutic environment are impressive to say the least. While not a public speaker, Dr Rockefeller's description of the neuroscience behind PTSD is quite clear and sounds as though it could apply to the genesis of TMS as well. His off-the-cuff remarks about epigenetics, and, perhaps most importantly, the effects of multi-generational trauma on contemporary politics are likewise intriguing.

This all sounds very much up Dr James Alexander's alley. I wonder if he has any comments to add about the science behind Dr Rockefeller's Commonwealth Club talk?

MDMA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MDMA

 

Thanks for posting this, BruceMC. I found it interesting. I'd sign up for a trial to see if it can cause 'durable remission' of TMS

There is also a lot of recent research showing excellent results in treating severe, chronic depression with ketamine (Special K).

 

I'll look into the Commonwealth Club but I'm not a doctor or a scientist.
I think healing pain is simple... believe in TMS. Bring out those repressed emotions.

 

MDMA therapy seems to make it happen much faster though, Walt, especially for "hard cases", people with PTSD or what they used to call "shell shock". You'll notice too that Dr Rockefeller is talking about administering MDMA a controlled psychotherapeutic environment, sort of like during EMT (Emotional Freedom Technique) and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). I know that Dr Alexander has worked with some of those "power therapy" modalities and Peter Levine has a technique of his own for "unfreezing" emotions from past trauma. I realize that TMS is just the first step up the hierarchy of stress-induced psychological conditions, with PTSD being one of the worst and hardest to successfully heal.

 

Found this testimonial today from a PTSD patient who says he didn't respond to CBT, but after taking MDMA only once, found significant relief from his condition:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/16/mdma-ptsd_n_5162803.html