On March 26, 2010, we closed our Israeli MDMA/PTSD study to new subjects in order to provide more training to the therapeutic teams and to our independent rater, to improve our data collection processes, and to make several improvements to the protocol. There were no Serious Adverse Events (SAEs) and all patients had been treated without evidence of harm. We have conducted preliminary analysis of the data from the five subjects who were treated and found self-reports of healing, but quantitative measures did not correspond. Rick will visit Israel in October to discuss procedures for restarting the study with Principle Investigator Moshe Kotler, M.D. Though recruitment had been slow, an official at the Israeli Defense Forces indicated a willingness to refer soldiers with war-related PTSD once we restart the study. We have learned from the Israeli study that we need to provide all of our therapist teams with enhanced training about MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, protocol adherence, and data collection, prior to a study’s initiation. We also have learned that we need a single, dedicated research coordinator for each site.
