Research Shows MDMA Can Treat PTSD and Other Psychiatric Conditions

A group of Johns Hopkins neuroscientists have found that the psychoactive drug MDMA, or ecstasy, may be helpful in treating post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

MDMA causes a neural response called a “critical period,” when the brain is sensitive to learning the reward value of social behaviors.

Researcher Gül Dölen and her team studied groups of mice to observe how MDMA affects this critical period. Dölen and her colleagues found that the critical period for social reward learning in mice occurs around puberty and wanes once they become mature adults. To determine if they could reopen the critical period, the scientists gave MDMA to mature mice, waited 48 hours for the drug to be washed out of their system, and observed how the mice explored their enclosure and behaved with other mice in the enclosure.

Following the MDMA treatments, the researchers found that mature mice responded to social interactions the same way as juveniles - a result that lasted for several weeks, and was not observed in mice given saline injections.

This suggests that we’ve reopened a critical period in mice, giving them the ability to learn social reward behaviors at a time when they are less inclined to engage in these behaviors. ~ Neuroscientist Gül Dölen

The researchers found that MDMA works to reopen the critical period only if the drug is given to mice when they are with other mice, not if it is given to mice while they are alone.

MDMA has been designated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a “breakthrough therapy” for PTSD. Dölen and her colleagues explain that if MDMA reopens the critical period for social reward learning in humans in the same way it does for mice, then it could explain why the drug has been successful in treating people with PTSD, perhaps by strengthening the psychotherapist-patient bond.


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