When you hear MDMA, you probably think of words like ‘drugs’, ‘festival’, and ‘illegal’. Whatever your first thoughts may be, it’s doubtful they would be ‘medicine’ or ‘therapy’.
A clinic in Western Australia may just change our perceptions of MDMA, with it trialling whether MDMA-assisted therapy can cure treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The Briefing brings you a two-part exclusive look into MDMA-assisted therapy, speaking with the co-founders of one of the only clinics in Australia offering the treatment, as well as a recipient of the therapy.
Listen to episode one of the exclusive look into MDMA-assisted therapy here:
So, how exactly would a drug most traditionally associated with the party scene help those suffering through a mental health crisis?
And why can it work in place of other, more traditional treatments?
In part one, Bension Siebert and Sacha Barbour Gatt speak with co‑founders of the Pax Centre, Dr Jonathan Laugharne and Claire Kullack, to explore why the treatment can offer such a profound breakthrough for people’s mental health.
A patient undergoes the therapy for three to four months, and the MDMA is only part of the program. Kullack said patients are “closely monitored” by psychiatrists, and the therapy is conducted in a” safe, controlled, therapeutic environment that’s been specifically designed to be a sanctuary for deep healing”.
Dr Laugharne described what the MDMA does to a patient’s brain during the session.
“Some people with PTSD do well with standard psychotherapy like EMDR and trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapies, but some of our patients get very stuck with the ability to face their traumas and work through them,” he said.
“MDMA seems to calm down that fear centre in the brain that drives that fear and avoidance and brings online the more thinking part of the brain.
“It enables people to take new perspectives, to work through traumas and their implications in the dosing sessions and beyond the dosing sessions.”
Listen to the two-part special now to hear more from the co-founders and a patient’s experience receiving the therapy.
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