FDA Panel rejects MDMA as a PTSD treatment in possible setback for advocates | Hacker News Reader

FDA Panel rejects MDMA as a PTSD treatment in possible setback for advocates

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12 pointsrendx9 comments

>> a lack of diversity among participants. The vast majority of patients were white, with only five Black patients receiving MDMA, raising questions about the generalizability of the results. “The fact that this study has so many white participants is problematic because I don’t want something to roll out that only helps this one group,” said Elizabeth Joniak-Grant, the group’s patient representative.

Imagine letting EVERYONE being off worse because it might not help everyone.

She really should've done reverse racism: do the study on whites since they are the only race for whom it's ok to discriminate in the current zeitgeist.

Instant approval!

Also funny they say "it might not work": I'm pretty sure many people with PTSD are desperate and nothing works for them: those would jump at anything that might help them.

But now they've denied them that. Gotta push pharma pills!

Imagine legalizing a drug because white people’s psyche just needs to get high. As soon as this happens I’m getting some PTSD with all my friends.

Ironically it sounds like you could really use the empathy that MDMA elicits. Good luck to you and your friends.

Is there anyone out there that’s can compare MDMA to more conventional treatments from actual experience?

Yes I can. I completed MDMA Assisted Therapy last year and this year I'm having the best summer of my life. I'm 39 years old. I was abused as a child by my father and subsequently struggled my entire life with drug addiction, depression, suicide attempts, and bad relationships. I'm lucky to be alive. I've been in therapy for YEARS without ever talking about what my Dad did to me. Therapy was always about putting out the fires in my life. It was too difficult to talk about what happened in my home. I was diagnosed with PTSD. Literally 3 MDMA Assisted Therapy Sessions and a few regular talk sessions in between was all it took for me to heal. MDMA turns off your amygdala so you're no longer afraid to talk about the traumatic experiences. Being able to finally process my trauma in those three 7 hour sessions was what I needed to get my life back on track. Of course I had to do the therapy underground because the shit drug war took this treatment away from the therapists who knew that it worked.

The FDA panel's decision really bummed me out today. I want this treatment to be available to people who need it because it really works!

Do you mind sharing the approximate cost of one of these sessions? 7 hours of therapy sounds expensive and exhausting

Treatment for PTSD can sometimes involve years of therapy, conservatively assuming monthly sessions (it’s not unusual for them to be every two weeks for serious cases) that’s well going to quickly rival the cost of any private/underground services…

The biggest problem here is that the treatment will remain fringe for longer, get less research money, and people suffering with PTSD will continue to suffer…

It actually just cost me an average hourly rate for therapy! It feels expensive considering that I had to pay for 7 hours at a time but it really just cost a regular hourly wage. Oh I'm so thankful to my therapists. Oh did I not mention? I had TWO therapists with me the whole time so in a sense I only paid for half of what I received. Amazing. And yes, that's standard practice per the MAPS guidelines for the therapy. We need to get this legalized now.

It saved my life.

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