Rave on this crazy feeling

Turns out that the party drug ecstasy (we called it X when I was a kid and it first hit college campuses, and nowadays they call it E, but technically it's known as MDMA) may have efficacy in treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) -- and by extension I'm assuming panic disorder, too.

Don't believe me? There's no reason you should. But maybe you'll believe The Economist magazine, where an article called "Agony and ecstasy" recently was published. From the article:

Dr Mithoefer’s Phase II research, which used MDMA from the only legal source—a chemist at Purdue University licensed by the DEA to distribute controlled quantities from a supply synthesised in 1985—is directly descended from the first generation of LSD psychotherapy. Subjects were given MDMA while attended by Dr Mithoefer and his wife, a psychiatric nurse. They rested on a futon, listened to music and were encouraged to revisit their trauma.

“I remember feeling incredibly safe and very motivated,” says Ms Westerfield of her first session....

The patients who received MDMA showed statistically significant improvement of their PTSD symptoms compared with those who received the same day-long therapy sessions with an inactive placebo. “All the major approaches involve revisiting the trauma in therapy”, says Dr Mithoefer, “but patients may be overwhelmed and retraumatised.” He believes the fear and defensiveness that characterise PTSD are obstacles to treatment, and that it is MDMA’s attenuation of these emotions that permits concurrent psychotherapy to be effective. He will publish the study shortly.

Sounds like MDMA may help those who panic process situations that trigger their attacks -- e.g., it might facilitate more effective cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) treatment. Maybe someone will do similar studies about MDMA's potential in treating panic and agoraphobia. Until then, though, rave on.

But keep it clean -- self-treatment with unprescribed medications is a risky game.