FDA Approves Compassionate Use of Ecstasy-Assisted Therapy to Help Veterans

Veteran Jonathan Lubecky used to contemplate suicide every single day while battling post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), he told Breitbart News in a phone interview last week.

“I was planning to kill myself each and every day,” he said. He actually attempted to do so at least five times.

“The idea of having dreams and a future, and growing old never even entered my mind — for eight years,” he said. “I didn’t expect to be alive in three days because I was constantly thinking of killing myself.”

That changed in November 2014 after he took part in a clinical trial for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy (methylenedioxymethamphetamine), which uses the drug ecstasy to help break down psychological barriers to treatment.

“Five years later, I’m alive. I probably wouldn’t be,” he said. “It saved my life.”

Just weeks ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved MDMA therapy for “expanded access,” which means it has been approved for compassionate use to treat 50 more people at ten sites across the nation as it goes through final clinical trials in the U.S., Canada, and Israel.

Only certain treatments qualify for the FDA’s expanded access program — experimental ones that treat serious or life-threatening illnesses and that have shown themselves to be better than current options.

“FDA approving expanded access is the FDA saying, ‘This is a real thing. This definitely works, and people should be allowed to use it outside the trial for compassionate use,'” Lubecky said.

The treatment entails using MDMA, or ecstasy, to first put the patient in a state in which he or she is receptive to therapy, followed by eight hours of intensive psychotherapy.

The drug enhances feelings of empathy and euphoria while inhibiting feelings of fear — allowing the patient to confront painful memories and trauma. There are several such sessions, three to four weeks apart. It takes approximately four months to complete.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/02/03/fda-approves-compassionate-use-ecstasy-assisted-therapy-help-veterans/