The European Medicines Agency has recently issued guidelines for sponsors interested in developing drugs to treat PTSD. The PTSD guidelines suggest that research be conducted in subgroups of people with PTSD, grouped according to the cause of their PTSD, for example, sexual assault or war-related PTSD. The purpose of such research is to identify if PTSD that is caused by a different type of trauma (i.e. sexual assault, war) responds to a specific treatment with similar or different success rates. If the treatment appears to have similar efficacy across subgroups, then people with PTSD from different causes can be enrolled in the same Phase 3 study but if the treatment is different, the Phase 3 studies should each be in a homogenous group of subjects by cause of PTSD.
As a result of the EMEA guidelines, MAPS, Michael Mithoefer MD, and Annie Mithoefer BSN will soon start the design and approval process for a new study investigating subjects whose PTSD is a result of war trauma. This study will include seven veterans, four women and three men, so that we can also gather some preliminary information on possible gender differences in response to MDMA-assisted psychotherapy.
