Now that we’ve completed our Swiss study of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in 12 subjects with chronic, treatment-resistant PTSD, the clinical team is analyzing the data and assisting investigator Peter Oehen, M.D., in preparing a manuscript for publication. A preliminary analysis suggests that the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS), which is the primary measure of PTSD symptom severity, showed a trend towards improvement after treatment, with CAPS reductions somewhat larger than in comparable studies of Zoloft and Paxil. The Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale (PDS), which is the secondary measure of PTSD symptoms completed by the subjects, also showed statistically significant improvements in symptoms after treatment.
The therapeutic results obtained in our previously completed U.S. flagship study of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD were larger than those from our Swiss study. In order to determine how methodological, personnel, and/or cultural differences may have led to these differences, we are asking a series of questions about whether there were differences in (1) the population from which subjects were drawn, (2) the recruitment process, (3) the screening process, (4) the demographics of the subjects enrolled, (5) Swiss and American cultural approaches to PTSD, (6) the approaches of the various independent raters, and (7) the way in which subjects’ PTSD symptoms were treated and/or evaluated by the clinicians. The answers to these questions will help MAPS understand how best to maximize therapeutic outcomes.
