Author: Gary Jackson

Does MDMA Cause Depression and Anxiety, or Is It a Future Treatment?

Depression is a common mental illness that is usually untreated and undiagnosed. This is true for many teenagers and young adults who experience mild to moderate depression. The release of serotonin causes people to experience an elevation of mood, feelings of empathy, and emotional closeness with those around them.

Are Psychedelics the Next Wave for Treating Depression?

There’s conflicting data about whether it causes depression and anxiety or helps individuals with those conditions. MDMA increases the release of serotonin and other neurotransmitters that elevate the mood. After taking MDMA, these feel-good chemicals decrease, which can cause feelings of depression.

Should I seek medical treatment if I feel depressed after taking MDMA?

As more research into the effects of MDMA and other psychedelics, such as psilocybin, becomes available, they, too, may prove to be an asset in treating patients with TRD. After my experience it is almost as if I have been drained of all of those qualities. I know there is a temporary depressive comedown after taking mdma that usually lasts a few days to a week. It has now been 1 year and 7 months, and I have not been able to experience happiness since. I have been depressed and dealing with extreme anxiety since, specifically social anxiety. To the point where I can no longer even get myself to be around my lifelong best friends or even family.

Based on dose-dependent reports 38, 41, jaw clenching may be more likely to occur when receiving a higher dose (125 or 150 mg). All other specific side effects during medication sessions did not reach significance (Table S3). In PTSD studies only, anxiety was also more common under MDMA-AP than controls. In the past decade, research on the therapeutic use of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) in psychotherapy has gathered pace. MDMA-assisted psychotherapy (MDMA-AP) uses a combined pharmacotherapy-psychotherapy model, with MDMA thought to ‘catalyze’ the effects of psychotherapy.

General Health

  1. The study included 40 participants, with 20 people in the MDMA group and 20 in the control group.
  2. While active placebos improve blinding in studies evaluating MDMA-AP, this may complicate comparison of safety data between groups where treatments are not pharmacologically-distinct 1.
  3. Based on dose-dependent reports 38, 41, jaw clenching may be more likely to occur when receiving a higher dose (125 or 150 mg).
  4. The remaining eight RCTs included 298 participants, and reported 138 different safety outcomes, of which 64 provided sufficient data for meta-analysis (i.e., at least two studies per outcome; Table S3).

It may provide benefits in people already using psychotherapy as a treatment. The preparatory period ends at enrollment confirmation and thus the start of the treatment period. The treatment period lasts approximately 8 weeks and includes two dosing sessions 3-5 weeks apart and three non-drug integrative sessions after each of the two. After the final Integrative Session 2.3 (Visit 12), participants will enter the follow-up period with no study visits for ~4weeks, followed by the Primary Outcome MADRS T2 (Visit 13). In a 2015 review of studies, the authors noted that MDMA is being considered as a treatment for depression because it may work rapidly.

Since Matthew Perry’s unfortunate death, this topic has again been brought to my attention. Perry, a former castmate of Friends, was found dead at his home in October. The autopsy report indicated his death was due to the combined effects of ketamine, drowning, and Buprenorphine, an opioid-like drug used in the treatment of opioid addiction. All authors contributed to drafting and revising the manuscript and approved its final version.

Some people may simply be genetically pre-disposed towards MDMA-related depression. Until further evidence leads to a clinically approved dose of MDMA for depression, people are safest using traditional treatment methods. A 2016 study looked at the effects of psilocybin, a hallucinogenic substance in some types of mushrooms. A total of 12 participants with moderate-to-severe depression took part in the study. Ongoing research is also looking at the potential of other recreational drugs, such as psychedelics, to treat depression.

Moreover, the observed differences between active and placebo conditions were relatively modest. For Phase 3 studies, participants undergoing MDMA-AP had higher odds of experiencing any TEAE as well as thirteen different types of TEAEs compared with placebo. Indeed, the certainty of evidence was rated as very low or low for 6 of 8 primary outcomes, with 2 rated as moderate certainty. This indicates that much remains unknown about the safety profile of MDMA-AP. This review identified several limitations of existing MDMA-AP evidence. First, although most studies reported side effect information, reporting practices were largely insufficient.

What Research Says About the Long-Term Effects of MDMA Use

In Phase 2 studies, MDMA-AP participants had 1.7 times greater odds of experiencing any side effect during medication sessions than placebo participants, and 1.6 greater odds of side effects in the 7 days following. These results, however, were based on ‘spontaneously reported reactions’ data, defined as a subset of adverse events that could be expected based on findings in healthy volunteers 28. It is therefore unsurprising that an effect was detected, albeit a small one 49. Participants treated with MDMA-AP also had 4.7 greater odds of anxiety and 4.8 greater odds of jaw clenching during medication sessions relative to placebo participants. Anxiety was also prominent in PTSD patients, who had 4.1 greater odds of anxiety during medication sessions when treated with MDMA-AP, and 4.8 greater odds in the 7 days following compared to the placebo-AP group. These findings are consistent with results of previous meta-analyses 14, 23, 24 and evidence from healthy subjects 11, 50.

Other recreational drugs for depression

When used in a clinical setting, MDMA has been found to be a safe treatment. When people buy recreational MDMA, they often believe that they’re buying the drug in its pure form. Health experts will need to see a significant amount of research on the benefits and risks of MDMA use for health conditions before it could become a treatment option.

Serotonin toxicity

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a world-leading cause of disability. The available treatments are not effective in all patients, and there is a significant need for more effective treatment options. Here we present the protocol for an investigator-initiated and publicly funded trial of MDMA-assisted therapy (MDMA-AT) for MDD. This single-site, open-label study investigates the proof of principle and safety of MDMA-AT in participants with MDD and provides an initial impression of treatment effectiveness.