[acb-hsp] An Amazing New Use for Ecstasy

[J.Rayl]

<LOL>  Another braille translation error, I suspect.

Jessie Rayl
thedogmom63 at frontier.com
www.facebook.com/Eaglewings10
www.pathtogrowth.org

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Baracco, Andrew W" <Andrew.Baracco at va.gov>
To: "Discussion list for ACB human service professionals" <acb-hsp at acb.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2012 11:25 AM
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.
_______________________________________________
acb-hsp mailing list
acb-hsp at acb.org
http://www.acb.org/mailman/listinfo/acb-hsp
_______________________________________________
acb-hsp mailing list
acb-hsp at acb.org
http://www.acb.org/mailman/listinfo/acb-hsp