[acb-hsp] An Amazing New Use for Ecstasy

[peter altschul]

Hi:

Sorry, it should read PTNESSD.

Best, Peter


> ----- Original Message -----
>From: "Baracco, Andrew W" <Andrew.Baracco at va.gov
>To: "Discussion list for ACB human service professionals" 
<acb-hsp at acb.org
>Date sent: Wed, 5 Dec 2012 08:25:37 -0800
>Subject: Re: [acb-hsp] An Amazing New Use for Ecstasy

>What is PTSAID?
>Andy


>-----Original Message-----
>From: acb-hsp-bounces at acb.org [mailto:acb-hsp-bounces at acb.org] On 
Behalf
>Of peter altschul
>Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2012 4:17 PM
>To: Acbhsp
>Subject: [acb-hsp] An Amazing New Use for Ecstasy

>An Amazing New Use for Ecstasy
>  Tracie Egan Morrissey December 3, 2012
>  The party drug MDMA, colloquially known as the party drug 
Ecstasy, can
>be used to cure patients of severe post-traumatic stress 
disorder,
>according to a study of experimental testing of combining the 
drug with
>psychotherapy.  The research, however, was not conducted on war
>veterans, a group most often associated with PTSAID, but with 
rape
>victims, who, on average, had been living with their symptoms for 
19
>years.
>  Back in the early 2000's, Dr.  Michael Mithoefer received the
>green-light from the DEA for clinical trials of MDMA.  Along with 
his
>wife Ann, a nurse, he would administer two doses of MDMA over one
>intensive therapy session that lasted between eight and ten 
hours,
>following a week-long series of shorter, non-drug sessions.  Then 
they
>would repeat the process three to five weeks later.  During the
>drug-induced session Dr.  Mithoefer would have the patient focus 
on
>their sexual assaults.  The MDMA seemed to reduce their fear and 
calm
>them, enabling them to discuss and work through their problems in 
ways
>that they previously could not.
>  According to the study, the patients symptoms of PTSAID 
(anxiety,
>hyperarousal, depression, nightmares, etc.) dropped by 75%, which 
is
>"twice the relief" patients experienced with non-MDMA therapy.  
And the
>15 out of 21 people who recovered, remained that way, nearly 10 
years
>after treatment.
>  One woman who worked with the Mithoefers, Rachel Hope, shared 
her
>story with CNN.  She was raped repeatedly when she was four years 
old
>after her mother went out of town and left her in the care of a
>pedophile for six weeks.  Decades later, in 1998, the news that 
the man
>who'd sexually abused her was being investigated for molesting 
another
>girl caused Hope to have a breakdown.
>  "I started having these outrageous flashbacks, and body 
memories.  The
>first time, I thought someone slipped me a drug.
>Because it would be these unstoppable, full-body blackout 
memories, and
>people would tell me later, 'You were just screaming for an 
hour.'"
>  Her symptoms were debilitating, involving panic attacks, 
anxiety
>attacks, irritable bowel syndrome, insomnia, bleeding ulcers, and
>nausea.  She'd been hospitalized multiple times.
>Hope tried nearly every form of therapy-eye movement 
desensitization and
>reprocessing, cognitive behavioral therapy, hypnosis, 
acupuncture, and
>gestalt therapy" to no avail.  She began to accept that she just 
might
>be disabled.  And then she read about Mithoefers.  Within weeks 
of
>working with them, she says that 90% of her symptoms were gone.
>  Naturally, the military is very interested in the Mithoefers'
>results.  Loree Sutton, who served as an Army psychiatrist until 
she
>retired two years ago, finds the research "promising." Since 
publishing
>his work, Dr.  Mithoefer began treating veterans, police 
officers, and
>firemen.  But civilians actually make up the majority of the 
seven
>million people suffering with PTSAID, many of them being 
survivors of
>sexual assault.
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