US studies have found the illegal drug MDMA could help veterans overcome traumatic memories.

"It's quite a mysterious disorder and that's part of the reason why looking for different ways to treat it is a fairly important thing."

Steve McDonald is a retired army major and the secretary of Psychedelic Research in Science in Medicine (PRISM), an organisation trying to start up MDMA treatment trials for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

He suffers from PTSD and had become frustrated with the treatments available when he decided to self-medicate with MDMA.

In terms of anything that I've experienced in a one day or session over a few hours, the MDMA was the most effective in terms of its beneficial effects on my health."

PTSD is a problem for defence force, a 2010 study found more than 8 per cent of members had suffered from the disorder in the last twelve months but because it's often unreported by sufferers the number is probably higher.

Ecstasy success in '60s

While using MDMA to help soldiers might sound pretty crazy, it's similar to work Californian Pharmacologist Alexander Shulgin was doing in the 60s and 70s.

Shulgin was known as the godfather of ecstasy and he passed away on Monday the 2nd of June, 2014.

His work lives on in studies like the ones planned by PRISM though and Steve says MDMA could have some real benefits as a treatment.

It's putting people in a zone of effect that sort of allows them to think about their traumatic experiences but without actually re-experiencing the trauma and anxiety associated with those memories."

But don't drop at home; this treatment is dished out in 11 controlled psychotherapy sessions.

"The treatment will only involve two or three sessions using MDMA, so it's certainly not an ongoing program of taking the drug.

"The remainder of the 11 sessions are to review the experience from the drug and to integrate that experience."

Skip Twitter Tweet FireFox NVDA users - To access the following content, press 'M' to enter the iFrame. @triplejHack discussion on PTSD was an eye opener. An issue still addressed with a "she'll be right mate" attitude that needs to change. — Josh Horneman (@namenroh) June 5, 2014

The work PRISM is planning is based on studies out of North America.

"Here in the US there's a statistic that's terrifying, that 22 veterans a day, just here, are committing suicide and that there's a strong association there with PTSD."

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Brad Burge is from the Multi-disciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), a group currently trialling the effectiveness of MDMA as a PTSD treatment.

"Our current ongoing study in South Carolina is focused on primarily on US veterans with chronic and treatment resistant PTSD as a result of military combat."

Skip Twitter Tweet FireFox NVDA users - To access the following content, press 'M' to enter the iFrame. Crying on my way home from work listening to a young Aussie vet. We NEED to do something more to help those with PTSD @triplejHack — Alex King (@alex_s_king) June 5, 2014

That's got 24 participants and is the second phase of MAPS's studies. The first phase finished in 2012.

"Primarily with female survivors of sexual assault and abuse in addition with a couple of veterans.

"83 per cent of the subjects who received just two MDMA assisted psychotherapy sessions no longer had PTSD after those two sessions."

But Michael Burge, the director of the Australian College of Trauma Treatment, isn't convinced.

"These are small and preliminary inconclusive studies that have obviously fueled the frantic hopes of many but among the scientific community it hasn't been proven to work yet and it's quite risky and perhaps almost dangerous."

Skip Twitter Tweet FireFox NVDA users - To access the following content, press 'M' to enter the iFrame. Completely agree with words of the psychologist on @triplejHack - we need more research on this! #ptsd — Shainal Nathoo (@DoctorNathoo) June 5, 2014