Pubdate: Tue, 08 Sep 2015
Source: Vancouver 24hours (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Vancouver 24 hrs.
Contact: http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/letters
Website: http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3837
Author: Michael Mui
Page: 3
Cited: http://www.maps.org/

ECSTASY USED TO RELAX TRAUMA VICTIMS

A Vancouver study is examining using the pure form of the drug ecstasy
as a treatment tool for people suffering from extreme cases of
post-traumatic stress disorder, by simply making it easier for them to
talk and share their experience.

Dr. Richard Yensen is one of a team of researchers on the project,
sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic
Studies, which has PTSD patients taking MDMA up to three times over a
period of about four months.

MDMA is known for its qualities of making people more willing to talk
and to experience empathy.

"It's an international study - Vancouver, Colorado, South Carolina,
Israel and Switzerland - the other groups have gotten started much
quicker and their data is ready and the data is overwhelmingly
positive," Yensen said on Monday.

"The results have been, overall in the study, 83% of the people who
are treated are not diagnosable as having PTSD at the end of the study."

The patients - up to 12 in total are approved for Vancouver - are
given a prep day and encouraged to establish a rapport with therapists.

After taking the MDMA, as patients travel through their psychedelic
journey - the peak of the drug is about three hours - they're
encouraged to listen to music, relax and discuss their trauma.

"The MDMA experience allows them to gain a new perspective on their
trauma and is soothing enough to look at the trauma with a feeling of
safety and trust," Yensen said.

"To go through it all again from a perspective that's safe, and with
people trying to help you to understand what happened."

Each therapy session is followed by nighttime monitoring - so the
patients aren't told to go home right away after sharing their
stories. Afterward, the patients are followed for seven days with
daily phone calls and given the option to repeat the drug treatment
twice more, as needed.

Yensen said the research marks the first time Health Canada has given
permission to test psychedelic drugs on humans in 40 years.

The sample size for this study is small - done to prove that patients
came to no harm - but Yensen said he expects further research to focus
on much larger sample sizes to catalogue the benefits of this type of
treatment.
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MAP posted-by: Matt