On February 1, 2012, the independent rater for MAPS’ upcoming Israeli study of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD completed training on the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS). The CAPS is the primary outcome measure by which our research teams assess the severity of PTSD symptoms before and after treatment with MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. MAPS developed this training program in order to standardize how the CAPS is administered across our diverse study sites. The training includes reviewing of MAPS’ training manual for independent raters, viewing videos of real CAPS interviews produced by the Veterans Administration, and completing assessments of the rater’s ability to reliably administer the CAPS questionnaire. After a final meeting with the clinical team, the site will begin screening and enrolling subjects. Many of the Israeli subjects will be referred by the Israeli Defense Forces.
