MDMA in Healthy Subjects / Therapist Training Study Awaits DEA Approval
Although our protocol for studying MDMAs effects on healthy volunteers was approved by the FDA on October 3, 2009, and by the IRB on December 21, 2009, we are still waiting on the DEA’s Office of Drug and Chemical Evaluation (ODE) to provide Michael Mithoefer, M.D. with a Schedule 1 license for this study. In this study, Principal Investigator Dr. Mithoefer and co-therapist Ann Mithoefer, B.S.N., will be administering MDMA to healthy volunteers who are part of our therapist-training program. The study will also allow us to learn more about the effects of MDMA in healthy individuals, as opposed to patients with chronic, treatment-resistant posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We expect that, as with the study in veterans of war with PTSD, the ODE will grant approval based on Dr. Mithoefers excellent track record. The ODE told Dr. Mithoefer that he could expect to have his license in the mail by June 9, though it has not yet arrived. On July 13, the ODE told MAPS Executive Director Rick Doblin, Ph.D. that the approval letter would be coming soon.