News Ecstasy... A Possible Treatment For PTSD

[Deleted member 541]

TRONDHEIM, Norway (UPI) -- Ecstasy may help sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder learn to deal with their memories more effectively, researchers in Norway suggest.

"A goal during exposure therapy for PTSD is to recall distressing experiences while at the same time remaining grounded in the present," study authors Pal-Orjan Johansen and Teri Krebs, based at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology said in a statement. "Emotional avoidance is the most common obstacle in exposure therapy for PTSD, and high within-session emotional engagement predicts better outcome."

Psychiatrists who have administered MDMA -- the pharmaceutical version of Ecstasy -- to anxiety patients have noted it promotes emotional engagement; strengthens the bond between the patient and doctor; decreases emotional avoidance and improves tolerance for recall and processing of painful memories.

Johansen and Krebs suggest there are three possible biological reasons for why ecstasy could help individuals with PSTD -- ecstasy is known to increase the release of the hormone oxytocin, which is involved in trust, empathy and social closeness. It also acts in two brain regions to inhibit the automatic fear response and increase emotional control and thirdly, ecstasy increases the release of two other hormones, noradrenaline and cortisol, essential to triggering emotional learning, including the process that leads to fear extinction, on which therapy for PTSD relies.

The findings are published in Journal of Psychopharmacology.

 

[midi]

I knew there was a reason why I've never touched E. Like I need anymore oxytocin, which binds a woman to one guy, even if he treats her like crap. I've got way too much of it in my system and I am done with Rihanna's approach to love.

Sounds like great news for those who have manageable hormones, though.

 

[sky dancer]

Interesting. I took MDM many years ago. I only remember it making sex more fun.

 

[anthony]

I believe the downfall of taking a drug such as ectasy well outweights even contemplating such an idea. I think the researchers need a smack around the ears and told to wakeup to themselves and try something more reasonable than attempting to hook more people to illegal drugs. There are far more ways than such a drug to help memory release and memory recall than ectasy. Just my opinion though....

Interesting news though Wendy... good to hear that people our looking at many possibilities. Just a stupid one IMHO...

 

[sky dancer]

I'd like to see the research on this.

 

[Deleted member 541]

Anthony,

I would never try it either.. I like to be in control of me, not the other way around. Ecstasy scares the shit out of me, just because of the fact that you are not in control. Same thing goes for Hypnosis....Can't do that either.

 

[Ursa]

Why some people are always trying to resolve things with pills?

Really, I believe that PTSD is more than a chemical imbalance. It has a history that is personal to everybody and I cannot conceive the idea of a pill to help with that.

 

[Lionheart]

Having processed traumatic memories on all levels over the past 12-13 years, I am still left with difficulties in regulating emotions, especially frustration, anger and other intense feelings. Having said this, I know that there are physical / anatomical changes in the structure of my brain, (as well as the chemical imbalances that are as much responsible for this problem as is conditioning, poor thinking habits, etc., etc.). I believe that if this drug is well researched before being put to market, it could possibly lead to new medications to correct the brain chemical deficiencies inherent in PTSD and C-PTSD. Therefore, I hope the research will continue. Still, as with anything else, I hope common sense will prevail and the studies and research will be taken seriously. *(I also hope that people will not self medicate.......I've been there done that....it does not work and may compound difficulties exponentially)!

 

[Ursa]

Ok.

I read the original research from the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

I understood that such drug was used to diminish the discomfort during exposure therapy while the therapy would be used to create new responses from the brain.
So, the drug does not cure or make the PTSD better, just aids through exposure therapy to make it work quicker and with less distress.

 

[Claire]

Yes, I read it too. I thought it sounded quite a good idea if used as suggested in a controlled way.

I'm not sure what the downsides are afterwards though. More research is obviously needed but I think its good that they are thinking a drug can to aid exposure therapy, which we know works.

 

[Spoo]

Well, if this were true, I should have been cured a few years ago!!

 

[Ambience]

My last experience of flashing back to my lsd trip regarding my abortion and just generally that traumatic time was at a massive event the other week. I did so many drugs I could hardly stand. My boyfriend is into doing drugs and I just kind of got involved because I hang out with him. I don't take drugs at home or on my own or with my circle of friends only with his.

My experience with drugs used to be ecstacy, except after my lsd experience and since then , it's been more flashbacks to that experience. I've re-experienced it over and over, and mdma trips last quite awhile. I did find my thought process unravelling, it was agonising at first, but eventually, it led me to some revalations about my trauma, it was very difficult, not controlled, I was in a tent on my own suffering alone with noone really knowing what was going on with me. I locked myself in a toliet at one point for four hours as I was too freaked out to go outside, I was paranoid, people could see my intrusive thoughts.

Everytime I do drugs, i get a massive feeling that I am perpetuating flashbacks, although I get an equal feeling that i've dealt with something on a deep fundermental level, so I'm not really sure if it could be useful if controlled.

My experience of going on cipramil seems to have reduced the intensity of my intrusive thoughts and the way I'm experiencing them emotionally. This is the same thing as lexapro which i think is trialed for PTSD. This is the most success I've had, but still not 100%. I'd like to combine it with proponol which the doctor suggested, but my last experience of that was insignificant. I hear it works better for PTSD than anxiety though.

So as a verdict, I think that mdma probably causes more damage as flashbacks are intense after doing too much mdma. I think if you do less you don't experience flashbacks, but controlled, hmm, I would prefer something that is already available on prescription. I'm slowly becoming anti drugs, now for getting my boyfriend off them, that is going to be hard. Very very hard.