Objective: The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) has positioned itself against medically controlled patient access (at this current time) to 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and psilocybin-assisted therapies in its Therapeutic Use of Psychedelic Substances Clinical Memorandum, May 2020. The main reason given by the RANZCP for its stance is safety...
MDMA is increasingly used in clinical research, but no cGMP process has yet been reported. We describe here the first fully validated cGMP synthesis of up to 5 kg (≈30 000 patient doses) of MDMA in a four-step process beginning with a noncontrolled starting material. The overall yield was acceptable (41-53%, over four steps), and the chemical purity of the final product was excellent, exceeding...
Background: Psychedelic drugs are increasingly being researched for their therapeutic properties in terms of treatment resistant mental illnesses. However, little is known about how they impact metabolism, which has implications for those with metabolic diseases such as diabetes. Hypohydration has been argued by some to cause glucose dysregulation, particularly due to elevations in arginine...
Male rats escalate intravenous self-administration of entactogen psychostimulants, 3,4-methylenedioxymethcathinone (methylone) and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) under extended access conditions, as with typical psychostimulants. Here, we investigated whether female rats escalate self-administration of methylone, 3,4-methylenedioxypentedrone (pentylone), and MDMA and then studied...
BACKGROUND: Incorporating 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) as an adjunct to psychotherapy has shown promise in recent years for treating various mental health conditions, particularly those involving trauma. However, concerns about declines in mood and cognition during the days following dosing, also known as 'Blue Mondays', have been raised as limitations to its clinical use. Although...
Abstract Psilocybin, a hallucinogen contained in “magic” mushrooms, holds great promise for the treatment of various psychiatric disorders, and early clinical trials are encouraging. Adverse cardiac events after intake of high doses of psilocybin and a trial reporting QT interval prolongation in the electrocardiogram attributed to the drug’s main metabolite, psilocin, gave rise to safety...
Although MDMA (ecstasy) is a relatively safe recreational drug and is currently considered for therapeutic use for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD), recreational MDMA use occasionally elicits hyperthermia and hyponatremia, sometimes with a fatal outcome. Specific risk factors for both adverse effects are profuse sweating while vigorously...
Addictive BehaviorsDecember 1, 2021G. Chan, Tianze Sun, Carmen C. W. Lim et al.
AIM To test the age, cohort, and period effect on past-year use trends in psychedelic drugs and ecstasy. METHOD Data were from a repeated cross-sectional nationally representative household survey in Australia conducted every three years between 2001 and 2019. An age-period-cohort model was used to test the effect of age, birth cohort, and period on past year psychedelic and ecstasy use....
3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA/"ecstasy") is widespread in the electronic club scene, but MDMA has also been suggested for the treatment of anxiety spectrum disorders like posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and social anxiety in autistic adults. Here, we report a case of a high functioning 24-old student with a sporadic recreational use of ecstasy, and a history of a single episode...
Purpose of review Despite advances in treatment modalities for mood disorders over recent decades, further therapeutic options are still required. Increased research is occurring, with the pursuit of psychedelic-based pharmacotherapies for a range of mood disorders and other conditions. Recent findings Serotonergic psychedelics have been found to modulate brain networks underlying various...
MDMA's first identified potential as a therapeutic catalyst was for couple therapy. Early work in the 1970s and 1980s explored its potential amongst seasoned psychotherapists and their clients. With the completion of the first pilot trial of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy with couples for PTSD, and as the possibility of conducting MDMA-assisted psychotherapy trials expands due to new regulatory...
Colorimetric reagent kits can provide information about the compounds present in drug samples. This study aimed to identify patterns and correlates of colorimetric reagent kit use, as well as behavioural outcomes of testing, amongst people who use illegal stimulants in a context that lacks permanent government-sanctioned drug checking services. Australians residing in capital cities who...
Most patients with substance use disorder (SUD) also have anxiety, and many have post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), using drugs or alcohol to self‐medicate (although not effectively). What happens with PTSD occurs in the amygdala, explained George Koob, Ph.D., director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), in an interview with ADAW last week. The emotional part...
Abstract This article discusses current literature on the use of 3,4‐methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)‐assisted psychotherapy in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). MDMA, the intended active ingredient in illicit Ecstasy or Molly products, is a psychedelic that causes an elevated mood, feeling of bonding, and increased energy. In MDMA‐assisted psychotherapy, patients are...
3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is a psychostimulant known for producing positive subjective effects and for enhancing social functioning and social connection in both clinical and recreational settings. Over the past two decades, scientists have begun to study the psychological effects of MDMA through rigorous placebo-controlled experimental work. However, most existing studies have...
Although young countercultural travellers and spiritual seekers have visited Latin American indigenous communities for the purposes of drug-induced consciousness expansion and shamanic-assisted spiritual healing since the 1960s, the Millennial generation is playing a pivotal role in the global revitalization of indigenous spiritual practices by producing and spreading information through...
MDMA (3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine) is a common recreational drug of abuse which causes neurodegeneration. Nicotine and modafinil provide antioxidant and neuroprotective properties and may be beneficial in the management of MDMA-induced neurotoxicity. The purpose of this study was to characterize how acute and chronic administration of nicotine and/or modafinil exert protective effects...
Preclinical and clinical studies indicate that 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA; 'ecstasy'), in addition to having abuse potential, may elicit acute and persistent abnormalities of varying severity at the central level. Importantly, neurotoxic effects of MDMA have been demonstrated in experimental animals. Accordingly, central toxicity induced by MDMA may pose a serious harm for health,...
MedEdPORTALSeptember 30, 2021Ashlea Winfield, Elizabeth Black, Michelle Sergel
Introduction MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine) is a popular drug of abuse associated with a variety of clinical manifestations. There are a number of life-threatening sequelae, including, but not limited to, agitated delirium, cardiac dysrhythmias, and hyperthermia. Similar to other substances that cause sympathomimetic toxidromes, MDMA also induces a syndrome of inappropriate...
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a prevalent and often debilitating psychiatric disorder that can assume a chronic course even when treated. Despite the identification of evidence-based pharmacological and behavioral treatments for SAD, much room for improved outcomes exists and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) has been proposed as a promising adjunctive treatment to psychological...