Research in Vancouver on psychedelic drugs as a possible treatment for mental illness is part of a worldwide renaissance of the formerly sidelined area.

“The door to research has opened and many have walked through,” says Mark Haden, board chairman of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies Canada.

A paper published Tuesday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal notes a resurgence of such work around the world, which was discredited in the 1970s by governments who called psychedelics “drugs of abuse with no recognized medical value.”

The Canadian Multidisciplinary Association and other affiliates of the parent organization based in Santa Cruz, California, have administered MDMA ­— also known as ecstasy or Molly — along with intensive psychotherapy to about 100 people diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Vancouver had six study participants; the others were in the United States, Spain, Switzerland and Israel. About one-third were military veterans.

“A dramatic improvement has been noted in all participants,” says Haden, who is also an addictions counsellor and adjunct professor in the University of B.C.’s School of Population and Public Health. The results have not been published, but Haden says the goal of the research and a proposed Phase 3 clinical trial is to have MDMA (methylenedioxymethamphetamine) approved as a medication for PTSD if it’s part of treatment by a psychiatrist or psychologist.

Study participants took a standardized dose of MDMA in the presence of a therapist on three occasions. They were coached through their three-to six-hour high and had counselling before and after. The control group took a placebo and, after an initial two-month followup, was offered MDMA in sessions

“It does help people to understand themselves,” Haden said Tuesday. “The permeability between the conscious and unconscious mind is increased when people take psychedelics.”

With PTSD, particularly from wartime experiences, it can help patients stop their disturbing thoughts, he says.

“PTSD is an unconscious tape loop that’s completely destructive to someone. The pain of the experience of battle is brought back and replayed constantly. Normally that unconscious tape loop is walled and protected through fear, but people have access to that through psychedelics,” Haden explains.

The Multidisciplinary Association research, funded by donations from the public, is trying to reproduce a 2010 study by South Carolina-based psychiatrist Dr. Michael Mithoefer who concluded that 10 out of 12 research participants had no PTSD after MDMA-assisted therapy. In comparison, only two of eight in the placebo group had similar results based on structured interviews used to rate the severity of the disorder.

Dr. Evan Wood, a UBC professor and medical director of addiction services at Vancouver Coastal Health and Providence Health Care, wrote the Canadian Medical Association Journal analysis with co-authors Kenneth W. Tupper, Matthew W. Johnson and Richard Yensen.

They summed up existing research about LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), psilocybin found in magic mushrooms, dimethyltryptamine (DMT, an active ingredient in the Amazonian hallucinogenic ayahuasca), mescaline and MDMA, including:

• A 2014 randomized controlled trial, the most reliable form of medicinal research, on 12 terminally ill patients in Switzerland that showed “significant reductions” in anxiety after LSD-assisted psychotherapy.

• A study published in 2011 on end-of-life anxiety in 12 people with end-stage cancer. It found psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy reduced anxiety and improved mood among participants compared to therapy sessions without it or with a placebo.

• An observational study ­— meaning there was no control group — of 12 First Nations participants in Vancouver who had ayahuasca-assisted treatment for drug addictions, including alcohol. It found improved mental health and reduced use of addictive substances after six months.

“Continued medical research and scientific inquiry into psychedelic drugs may offer new ways to treat mental illness and addiction in patients who do not benefit from currently available treatments,” says the journal analysis.

“Although methodological and political challenges remain to some degree, recent clinical studies have shown that studies on psychedelics as therapeutic agents can conform to the rigorous scientific, ethical and safety standards expected of contemporary medical research.”

eellis@vancouversun.com