Therapists Marcela Ot'alora and Bruce Poulter are trained to conduct MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. In this reenactment, they demonstrate how they help guide and watch over a patient who is revisiting traumatic memories while under the influence of MDMA. (Photo: Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies)

MD­MA, now in Phase III, shows promise as a PTSD treat­ment

The first time Lori Tip­ton tried MD­MA, she was skep­ti­cal it would make a dif­fer­ence.

“I re­al­ly was, at the be­gin­ning, very ner­vous,” Tip­ton said.

MD­MA is the main in­gre­di­ent in the club drug known as ec­sta­sy or mol­ly. But Tip­ton wasn’t tak­ing pills sold on the street to get high. She was try­ing to treat her post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der by par­tic­i­pat­ing in a clin­i­cal tri­al.

Af­ter tak­ing a dose of pure MD­MA, Tip­ton lay in a qui­et room with two spe­cial­ly trained psy­chother­a­pists. They sat next to her as she re­called some of her deep­est trau­mas, such as dis­cov­er­ing her moth­er’s body af­ter Tip­ton’s moth­er killed two peo­ple and then her­self in a mur­der-sui­cide.

Endpoints News

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.