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 stimulerer opptak av oksytocin, «kjærlighetshormonet», som gjør at man kan prosessere traumer mer effektivt og se verden, seg selv og sine forhold med medfølelse. Min forståelse basert pådet jeg har lærter at traumer (store eller små) ligger til grunn for alle psykiske lidelser. Barn er ekstremt sensitive og tilpasningsdyktige, og lidelsen var sinnets måte å tilpasse seg situasjonen på. Man kan se indikasjonene på dette ved at erfarne forskere ser på MDMA for mye annet enn bare PTSD. Merk at dette er små studier i tidlige faser, så kan ikke regnes som bevis på at det fungerer, men det gir en indikasjon på hva ekspertene tror det vil fungere for. Jeg har ikke linket til alle studiene her, men du kan se listen for alle kliniske forsøk medMDMA herogpsilocybin her.
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