[acb-hsp] Can Ecstasy Treat Autism?

[peter altschul]

Can Ecstasy Treat Autism?
  Dirk Hanson, The Fix December 6, 2011
  A team of scientists at a California non-profit organization 
just announced a pilot study to determine if Ecstasy might help 
fight the effects of autism.  This isn't the first time that 
MAPS, or the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic 
Studies, has researched the psychiatric benefits of MDMA.  A 2010 
study of twenty Iraq veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic 
Stress Disorder found that a combination of Ecstasy and therapy 
resulted in an 80-percent success rate, high enough to convince 
the Food and Drug Administration to greenlight further studies of 
the drug.
  This newest study is part of an ambitious plan by MAPS and its 
president, Rick Doblin, to make MDMA an FDA-approved prescription 
medicine.  MAPS considers itself a "non-profit pharmaceutical 
company" that focuses on treating illnesses with psychedelics and 
medical marijuana.  It claims that it's "the only organization in 
the world funding clinical trials of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy.  
For-profit pharmaceutical companies are not interested in 
developing MDMA into a medicine because the patent for MDMA has 
expired."
  However, despite its effectiveness in treating PTSAID, safety 
questions about Ecstasy still linger-for instance, will long-term 
use fry the serotonin receptors in your brain? A recent report 
released by the Archives of General Psychiatry concludes, "MDMA 
use produces chronic serotonin neurotoxicity in humans.  Given 
the broad role of serotonin in human brain function, the 
possibility for therapeutic MDMA use, and the widespread 
recreational popularity of this drug, these results have critical 
public health implications."
  But others believe that the dangers of MDMA are overstated, 
especially when the drug is used in controlled settings.  As Fix 
columnist Maia Szalavitz wrote in a column for TimeHealthland, 
"short-term use for the treatment of conditions like 
post-traumatic stress disorder is considered safe enough that the 
FDA has approved clinical trials...  that are generating a great 
deal of excitement."
  MDMA releases a flood of the brain messengers serotonin and 
dopamine while increasing blood levels of the hormones oxytocin 
and prolactin, which promote social bonding.  This potent mix 
diminishes fear and defensiveness and boosts empathy and the 
desire to connect with others.  The drug's 'empathogenic' effects 
suggest that MDMA might be useful to enhance the psychotherapy of 
people who struggle to feel connected to others, as may occur in 
association with autism, schizophrenia or antisocial personality 
disorder," said the authors of a landmark study last year in the 
journal Biological Psychiatry.  "We found that MDMA produced 
friendliness, playfulness, and loving feelings, even when it was 
administered to people in a laboratory with little social 
contact." As MAPS puts it, "the effects of MDMA that increase 
empathy and enhance communication are precisely the abilities 
that autism tends to degrade."
  Ecstasy was first used as a therapeutic tool by a dedicated 
network of psychologists in the '70's and '80's, but MDMA's 
increasing popularity as a club drug lead the Drug Enforcement 
Administration to ban it in 1985.  Doblin launched MAPS a year 
later to revive psychedelic research.  Since then the group has 
supported over a dozen promising studies of MDMA, LSAID and 
Ibogaine to treat PTSAID migraine headaches and addiction, as 
well as anxiety and depression in cancer patients.  It can induce 
euphoria, a sense of intimacy with others.  These "empathogenic 
effects" suggest that the drug might be useful in helping 
patients who struggle to feel connected with others.
  Whether autistic children will respond to the drug as favorably 
as war-scarred soldiers remains to be seen, but MAPS isn't the 
first group to wonder about Ecstasy's effect on Autism.  MDMA 
primarily affects neurons in the brain that use the 
neurotransmitter serotonin to communicate with other neurons.  
The serotonin system plays an important role in regulating mood, 
aggression, sleep, and sensitivity to pain.  In a very early 
study in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs in 1986, researchers 
agreed with psychedelic pioneer Stanislav Grof that MDMA might 
mitigate autism by altering serotonin, and argued for the use of 
the compound for research purposes: "MDMA does not belong in 
Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, as recommended by 
the DEA.  Furthermore, it probably should not be placed in 
Schedule II either.  To place MDMA in either category would 
sharply curtail research on this promising drug and its use in 
the field by practicing psychotherapists and other mental health 
professionals."
  One intriguing and highly speculative theory has been put forth 
by prominent neuroscientist V.S.  Ramachandran, author of 
Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind.  
Ramachandran, quoted at bigthinkddcom, said that malfunctioning 
"mirror neurons," which fire when a person observes other people 
performing actions, "might be one of the major causes of autism 
..  we all known that Ecstasy enhances empathy.  It's quite 
possible it is acting through the mirror neuron system.  
Especially parts that are concerned with emotional empathy.  
Maybe if you knew what transmitters were involved you can 
engineer drugs that tap into that."
  MAPS is actively soliciting reports, either positive or 
negative, of people with Autism Spectrum Disorders who have tried 
MDMA.  If so, contact MAPS Lead Clinical Research Associate Berra 
Yazar-Klosinski, Ph.D.  at berra at maps.org.
  Dirk Hanson is a freelance science reporter and novelist who 
lives in Minnesota.  He has worked as a business and technology 
reporter for numerous magazines and trade publications, and is 
the author of "The Chemical Carousel: What Science Tells Us About 
Treating Addiction."
  ininB plus Alterationet Mobile Edition