The History of MDMA
June 29, 2023
Torsten Passie
Abstract This chapter provides an overview of the early history of the molecule MDMA, which was first synthesized by the pharmaceutical company Merck, in search of a synthesis of the blood-clotting agent hydrastinine. As the original synthesis of hydrastinine had already been patented by another company, Merck needed to find an alternative synthesis. After a few failed attempts, the company’s...
June 29, 2023
Torsten Passie
4 citations
Abstract This book is intended to provide an overview of the complex and dispersed history of MDMA, in the hope of making it more intelligible. In respect of the period up until the late 1980s, the book focuses on what was happening in Europe and the United States as other countries were not significant in this timeframe. This book does not describe the history of an illegal drug only as it is...
The History of MDMA
June 29, 2023
Torsten Passie
Abstract In the 1920s, physicians discovered the potential for ‘speech induction’ offered by psychoactive substances. The German Nazis were the first to conduct experiments on the use of ‘truth drugs’ for interrogation purposes. Later, after some American prisoners of war ‘confessed’ to the use of biological weapons in the Korean war, the United States (US) Army suspected that they had been...
June 9, 2023
Mika Turkia
2 citations
preprint
This retrospective study presents the case of a young woman in her mid-twenties who suffered from insecurity and abandonment-related anxiety, which intensified after a breakup of her relationship. Her parents' alcoholism and schizophrenia, as well as emotional and physical violence, had been a part of her childhood, but they had appeared 'normal' to her. Her parents and relatives had not...
ACS Omega
June 6, 2023
Alexander M. Sherwood, Elise K. Burkhartzmeyer, Samuel E. Williamson et al.
A divergent two-step process has provided access to optically pure enantiomers of MDMA and MDA, clinically relevant phenylisopropylamine entactogens. Target compounds were synthesized from commercially available alanine-derived aziridines. Critical process parameters were identified, and the reactions were optimized to avoid chromatographic purifications toward gram-scale isolations, providing...
The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
June 1, 2023
Josua Zimmermann, Niklaus Zölch, Rebecca C Coray et al.
Background: 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is a widely used recreational substance inducing acute release of serotonin. Previous studies in chronic MDMA users demonstrated selective adaptations in the serotonin system, which were assumed to be associated with cognitive deficits. However, serotonin functions are strongly entangled with glutamate as well as γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)...
Journal of the American Academy of Religion
June 1, 2023
Justine M. Bakker
9 citations
Abstract Since 2001, visual artist Ellen Gallagher has been working on “Watery Ecstatic,” an ongoing, expansive project that depicts real and imaginary underwater life through drawings, films, reliefs, and paintings. Thus far, this series—indeed, Gallagher’s oeuvre—has not been studied by scholars of religion. Arguing that the series provokes an extended conversation about mysticism,...
International Journal of Molecular Sciences
May 22, 2023
Abdelmounaim Baslam, Abdelfatah Aitbaba, Asmae Lamrani Hanchi et al.
16 citations
The use of illicit substances continues to pose a substantial threat to global health, affecting millions of individuals annually. Evidence suggests the existence of a 'brain-gut axis' as the involving connection between the central nervous system and gut microbiome (GM). Dysbiosis of the GM has been associated with the pathogenesis of various chronic diseases, including metabolic, malignant,...
World Journal of Psychiatry
May 19, 2023
Lakshan N Fonseka, Benjamin K.p. Woo
12 citations
With the Food and Drug Administration designation in 2017 of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) as a breakthrough therapy in post-traumatic stress disorder and psilocybin in treatment-resistant depression, psychedelic drugs have continued to garner the attention of researchers and clinicians for their promise of unmatched, rapid improvement in a multitude of psychiatric conditions....
Frontiers in Psychiatry
May 18, 2023
Tigran Makunts, Diane Dahill, Lisa Jerome et al.
6 citations
3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is currently being investigated as an adjunctive treatment to therapy for posttraumatic stress and other anxiety related disorders in clinical trials. Within the next few years MDMA-assisted therapy is projected for approval by regulatory authorities. MDMA's primary mechanism of action includes modulation of monoamine signaling by increasing release and...