The psychedelic drug is being paired up with psychotherapy to treat PTSD

The first two phases of the clinical trial involving MDMA were promising

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – A clinical drug trial taking place in Vancouver which could revolutionize how Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is treated will soon begin its third phase.

Researchers will soon be choosing participants, who will take a psychedelic drug to help deal with their trauma.

Mark Haden is executive director of Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies Canada the organization undertaking the study into how the psychedelic — MDMA — might alleviate symptoms of PTSD.

He says there’s no shortage of people wanting to take part.

“Essentially I get inundated with emails. I probably get four or five emails a day of people who want to be part of our study – people who have trauma.”

Vancouver and Montreal are the only two Canadian cities involved in the study. A number of US and European cities are also conducting the same study with their own patients.

Only 12 people will be needed for the Vancouver study. Information will be posted to the MAPS Canada website.

The trial has been designed to see if the patients using the psychedelic drug in the company of a specially-trained psychotherapist, actually improve.

“Just to be clear, this is not something you can do at home. It’s a psychedelic-assisted therapy — a very specific type of therapy. One of things psychedelics do is allow people go to places in their minds that they can’t normally access,” says Haden, who points out the BC Centre on Substance Use is hosting the study.

He also clarifies the myth that the trial involves the party-drug Ecstasy.

“We are not using Ecstasy. There’s no funky-logo’d pills in our lab. There’s only pure powder methylenedioxymethamphetamine.”

He says the outcome in the first three trials were very promising.

“The exciting news is that the US Food and Drug Administration gave this study ‘break-through’ status. They took a look at the data and decided it was exciting enough and effective enough that they wanted to fast-track it.”

Haden says the therapy should be legal in Canada by 2021.

– With files from Denise Wong

Editor’s note: A previous version of this article suggested researchers were actively recruiting participants for this drug trial. It has been updated to reflect the fact that the third phase of the trial has not yet begun. Researches expect it to begin soon.