[ad_1]
“I never felt happy, no matter what was going on in my life,” she says. “I always felt uneasy, I always felt that underlying heaviness. Things didn’t stick in my head. It was like someone grabbed a cable and plugged it in, and I was trying to get it back in. ”
Eventually, Nathan learned of research investigating the use of MDMA to treat severe PTSD and was able to enter a phase 3 clinical trial, the last hurdle before U.S. regulators examined whether to accept therapy.
MDMA he is a synthetic psychoactive, famous for his party drugs, known among clubs; you know it as ecstasy, E or molly. The brain releases large amounts of the chemical serotonin, which has a euphoric effect, but it has also been found to reduce the activity of the brain’s limbic system, which controls our emotional responses. This seems to help people with PTSD re-experience traumatic experiences in therapy without being overwhelmed by intense emotions such as fear, embarrassment, or sadness.
To test this theory, Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, A California-based nonprofit organization, created a double-blind randomized trial — Nathan participated. Participants participated in three eight-hour sessions; in which they were given two doses of placebo or MDMA before discussing and receiving their problems. advice from two qualified therapists.
May 2021, trial the results were published in Nature Medicine. They were amazing. Of the 90 patients who participated, those who received MDMA gave significantly better results than the rest. Two months after treatment, 67% of participants in the MDMA group no longer had PTSD, and 32% in the placebo group.
I see life as something that needs to be studied and appreciated more than anything to be endured.
Nathan McGee
Ben Sessa, A UK researcher involved in launching the first psychedelic therapy clinic in Bristol, said the US Food and Drug Administration could approve MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD by 2023.
Other attempts are being made in the US, the UK and abroad to see if they like the compounds psilocybin and ketamine could also be used to help treat mental illness. The initial signs are positive, and if accepted, they can shake the world of mental health treatment.
I talked to Nathan about what the MDMA-assisted therapy experience was like. Our conversation has been compacted and edited to make it clearer.
Q: How did your mental health struggles come about?
A: Things didn’t go well for me before I took part in the trial. Everything I was trying to do went horribly wrong. Nothing worked. I tried several different therapists and techniques. I lost my job in January 2018. It was disappointing, and I had lost jobs before, but this time it was different. I decided if it affected my mental health, I would fix that. I will do what I need to do. If my therapist had told me I had to strip naked and walk through a crowded mall, I would have done that.
Q: How did you come across this research?
A: I was in a rabbit hole on the internet at night. I have been researching PTSD for a few hours and came across this research. I also thought about making the request. I didn’t think of anything. Actually, I forgot after that. I didn’t even tell my wife. Then, two months later, I received this phone call asking if they would interview me.
Q: Try what they were like through experience.
E: When you get there it looks like an office building. Looking at it from the outside, you wouldn’t know that there are a lot of people inside MDMA. But go ahead and they will take you to the treatment room, which has a sofa, bed, blankets and a pillow. He’s playing music, and that’s pretty much the whole experience. It is very relaxing. It almost feels like a spa. Sunlight enters, and trees and a canal can be seen through the window. It is very peaceful. Then two therapists are introduced. They check your vitality: temperature, blood pressure, heart rate and so on. They talk to you a little bit about what you hope to gain from the experience today. And then they perform this little ceremony or ritual, where they light a candle to indicate that things begin. It almost feels like a religious or spiritual experience. So they light a candle, and then a therapist goes and returns it with a small plate on top of the pill. They present you with a cup of water, you drink water and you swallow the pill and then you just sit and wait. You are chatting while you are waiting.
At one point I said, “I don’t think this is MDMA.” I had never taken anything like that, and I was a little nervous, to be honest. They don’t tell you if you have MDMA or not, but the lead therapist told me that almost everyone knows it. I almost thought I didn’t take it as soon as I said it, it started. I mean, I knew it.
[ad_2]
Source link
