FDA Agrees to New Trials for MDMA as Relief for PTSD Patients

Re:FDA Agrees to New Trials for MDMA as Relief for PTSD Pati... by CoryG89 on Wednesday November 30, 2016 @05:03PM (#13075131)

There aren't many good studies in the US precisely because of it's scheduling under the DEA. But serotonin levels are definitely restored. Most estimates range anywhere from a few days to six weeks before serotonin levels are fully restored. Not that permanent damage is impossible with frequent or high enough doses. More than once a week is definitely too much. More than once every month is probably still too much if you want to be safe. Most recommend 2-3 months for maximum safety.

I don't believe there are 'many' people who take MDMA daily for long periods of time, unless they only want negative side effects. They definitely aren't getting the same experience after the third day, regardless of how much they take. You only have so much serotonin. Perhaps these people are not actually taking what they think they are?

Here is an article about a decent study from the UK:

http://newatlas.com/study-effects-ecstasy/10995/

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Re:FDA Agrees to New Trials for MDMA as Relief for PTSD Pati... by nv-vn on Wednesday November 30, 2016 @05:54PM (#13075455)

Obviously it's the minority (<1%) of users who are abusing the drug at anywhere near that level. I'm sure that the positive effects are long gone by that point, but I think people who abuse to that extent have become dependent on MDMA in order to feel normal (or have convinced themselves that this is the case). While I'm sure most of these people aren't consuming pure MDMA, there's likely some cases where it is still what's really being used.

Anyways, I've seen many people claiming to have done this (or having friends who have done this) on Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Drugs/comments/45sgbe/daily_mdma_us... https://www.reddit.com/r/Drugs/comments/1ldmka/so_really_how... https://www.reddit.com/r/MDMA/comments/2765jb/i_used_100mg_o... https://www.reddit.com/r/MDMA/comments/211jkj/ive_been_rolli...

Lots of these cases may be false, but there still seems to be at least a few real cases of this. Of course, that's no reason to make the substance illegal (and especially not a reason to stop studies attempting to use it). Better regulation as a controlled substance is probably the best solution (i.e. enforcing the 2-3 month rule by only allowing MDMA to be purchased at those intervals).

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Re:FDA Agrees to New Trials for MDMA as Relief for PTSD Pati... by CoryG89 on Wednesday November 30, 2016 @08:13PM (#13076212)

I wouldn't put too much stock in these Reddit testimonials. I agree, there are definitely cases where individuals have used MDMA chronically, but I believe the percentage is much, much less than 1% of users.

There are also cases of individuals who believe they need to eat glass on a daily basis.

Anyone can convince themselves of anything if they want to believe it badly enough. I would be willing to bet that most of these chronic users would not exist in the first place had they sufficient knowledge about the drug.

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