From October 6-10, 2008, Michael Mithoefer MD, Annie Mithoefer BSN, and June May Ruse PhD, worked on the MDMA/PTSD treatment manual. This was their second week working together in person, with a third week anticipated in December or January. They have reviewed many hours of videotapes of therapy sessions from Michael and Annie’s recently completed US MDMA/PTSD pilot study, with the aim of finding clear examples of the key elements of the therapeutic method. They intend to develop scales of approximately ten key elements of the therapeutic method. These scales would then be used by raters to evaluate researchers/therapists’ adherence to our specific therapeutic method.
The treatment manual, selected excerpts of the videotapes, and the scales of the key elements of our therapeutic method, will form the core of our therapist training program for the male/female co-therapist teams who will conduct MAPS’ Phase 3 multi-site studies. We anticipate sponsoring studies in 20-30 different locations across the US, Europe, Israel and Jordan.