In July, the Food and Drug Administration took the important step of approving two final-phase clinical trials to determine whether a party drug that has long been on the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Schedule I list of banned substances could be used to treat a psychiatric condition that afflicts millions. The drug is MDMA, a psychedelic commonly known as Ecstasy, previously deemed to have “no currently accepted medical use.” The trials aim to determine whether the drug is, as earlier trials have suggested, a safe and effective treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, when combined with psychotherapy.

The F.D.A. approval is a beacon of hope for the roughly eight million Americans believed to suffer from PTSD, a group that includes victims of abuse, refugees and combat veterans. The shortcomings in the way we have typically treated PTSD mean that many are condemned to suffer from the condition for years, even decades, with little relief. Less than 20 percent of patients are estimated to get effective treatment through prescription psychiatric drugs like Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft, which, along with psychotherapy, have been the global standard of mental health care since the 1990s.

This could change with the F.D.A.’s decision, which has given MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of PTSD the status of a potential “breakthrough therapy.” Based on promising early results, this designation permits the fast-tracking of trials in hopes of proving the drug, which has psychedelic and stimulant effects, to be safe and capable of doing what no other drug on the market can.

I consider myself living proof of the effectiveness of MDMA. A few years ago, I woke up confused and bruised, my head pounding. I had been the victim of a violent robbery. Although I remember little of the attack, the experience shattered me. In public, I kept up appearances. Behind closed doors, I was a wreck. I burst into sobbing fits for no apparent reason. Sleep, when I managed to get any, was filled with nightmares. I had PTSD.