On Sept. 27, we completed the long-term follow-up study to our initial US MDMA/PTSD pilot study. Our team is now diligently working on preparing a scientific paper about the results. This study demonstrated that treatment benefits were maintained post-treatment. Some subjects improved further and some subjects experienced more PTSD symptoms, with average treatment benefits slightly increasing (getting better) over time. Subjects were interviewed a mean of 40 months after the treatment, so we can conclude treatment benefits were maintained at least 40 months afterward on average. This finding is more important than our initial finding of substantial therapeutic benefits persisting for two months after treatment. Notably, no subjects reported any harm from participating in the study. Nor did any subject develop a substance abuse problem. Critics of our research expressed concern that giving a drug of potential abuse to PTSD sufferers could result in drug abuse problems. We now have evidence showing that in our initial subjects, this fear did not materialize. We hope to have the paper finalized by December and submitted to a journal early in 2011. To that end, we’ve enlisted the help of Tim Brewerton, M.D., a statistics expert who has authored numerous journal publications.
