In Spain, MAPS is in the protocol development stage for a study being conducted by Jose Carlos Bouso, Ph.D., Jordo Riba, Ph.D., and Manel Barbanoj M.D. Weve agreed upon the protocol design with this team of researchers, and were now in the process of elaborating it into a full protocol for submission to their Hospitals Institutional Review Board, and then the Swiss Ministry of Health.
Once approved, this study will mark our overcoming the political suppression of our early MDMA/PTSD study in Spain. Jose Carloss MAPS-sponsored study in Madrid had been the worlds first MDMA/PTSD pilot study, started in 2000 and shut down in 2002 by the Madrid Anti-Drug authorities for political reasons. We’ve posted more information about the history of our early MDMA/PTSD study in Spain, as well as a paper by Jose Carlos Bouso, reporting on the results that we were able to obtain.
This study will be the only one of our pilot studies that uses an active placebo thats not MDMA. In this study, well be testing d-amphetamine as the active placebo. Were also going to be intensely focusing on evaluating videotapes of the first several therapy sessions using our adherence criteria for our revised treatment manual. All of our MDMA/PTSD studies now will start with a more intensive review of the videotapes of the first several sessions by raters to quantify therapist adherence to the therapeutic method. Over time, this should help us to make our training of therapists more effective, which will make our treatment itself more effective.