If you search for MDMA therapy, you'll see studies on MDMA for treating PTSD. If you search for psilocybin, you'll see the depression studies. But can it work for other disorders too? Here's a review of the theory behind its functions and all the small studies you don't read about.
What limits the research?
In the United States, drugs are classified into different levels. Schedule 1 is the top level where substances “that have a high potential for addiction and no accepted medical use” are placed. These classifications were made in a kind of panic around the hippie era and no one can defend these justifications anymore. Cannabis, MDMA, psilocybin are all in this group. This becomes especially comical when cannabis is Schedule 1 at the federal level, but can be obtained as a prescription medicine in over 35 states. What makes research on these substances difficult is that it is difficult to get financial support in addition to the fact that there is a lot of paperwork and bureaucracy that must be gone through to get permission to start. If you want to research cannabis, you have to have the substance locked in a safe attached to the floor with two separate doors. In addition, there has been a fear that the research would be stopped if undesirable situations should arise. Which is quite common when conducting studies on mentally ill people. These are the reasons why research has been strategically focused on conditions that will be easier to get approval for. Now that the first studies have progressed this far, it is easier to get approval for new phases and other studies.
The basic functions
In general, psilocybin and MDMA have different basic functions as medications and therefore work better for different disorders. Psilocybin creates more openness and stimulates neuroplasticity (the ability to think in new ways), which helps those who struggle with rigid thought patterns. Those who find it difficult to see things differently, feel stuck, hopeless, unable to break out of patterns or habits. Depression is a good example of this, but obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, addiction and midlife crisis also fall within this spectrum.
MDMA stimulates the uptake of oxytocin, the “love hormone,” which allows one to process trauma more effectively and view the world, oneself, and one’s relationships with compassion. My understanding based on what I have learned is that trauma (large or small) underlies all mental illness. Children are extremely sensitive and adaptable, and the disorder was the mind’s way of adapting to the situation. You can see the indications of this in the fact that experienced researchers are looking at MDMA for much more than just PTSD. Note that these are small, early-stage studies, so they cannot be considered proof that it works, but they do give an indication of what experts believe it will work for. I haven’t linked to all the studies here, but you can see the list for all clinical trials with MDMA here and psilocybin here .
The MDMA studies
- PTSD
- Anorexia and bulimia
- Alcoholism
- Couples therapy where one has PTSD, but both receive treatment
- Anxiety related to terminal illness
- Autism and social anxiety
- For healthy people, without mental illness