As of October 29, 2015, two subjects out of 18 have completed all treatments in our ongoing study of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for anxiety associated with life-threatening illness. Five participants have been enrolled, and one has withdrawn due to their inability to discontinue their existing anxiety medications. Led by Principal Investigator Phil Wolfson, M.D., with co-therapist Julane Andries, LMFT, in Marin, Calif., this study will treat 18 subjects suffering from anxiety related to a life-threatening disease that is either ongoing or in remission with a possibility of recurrence. “One of our participants has completed her secondary endpoint this month, marking what is essentially a completion of her participation in the study,” reports study coordinator John Hartberg. “With her permission, we present an excerpt from the day after an experimental session as she reflects on an MDMA-assisted psychotherapy session:
It is very striking to me how clean and pure and easy this was, compared to so many things I have tried to do…Each time my therapist inquires about disturbances, I check and am astonished there are none…What I like about MDMA, this kind of approach, is I get to remain autonomous and still explore this stuff. It doesn’t seem to depend on some artificially created dependence or alliance that leaves me feeling exposed or needy or like a child when I am clearly not one. It feels really natural.”
We currently expect all experimental sessions in this study will be completed in late 2016.