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5-HT2A
Registered: 01/30/10
Posts: 1,794
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Can Ecstasy Treat Autism?
#15483588 - 12/08/11 12:15 AM (12 years, 3 months ago) |
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http://www.alternet.org/drugs/153334/can_ecstasy_treat_autism/?page=entire
Research shows ecstasy increases empathy and enhances communication by producing playfulness, friendliness, and loving feelings.
A team of scientists at a California non-profit organization just announced a pilot study to determine if Ecstasy might help fight the effects of autism. This isn’t the first time that MAPS, or the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, has researched the psychiatric benefits of MDMA. A 2010 study of twenty Iraq veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder found that a combination of Ecstasy and therapy resulted in an 80-percent success rate, high enough to convince the Food and Drug Administration to greenlight further studies of the drug.
This newest study is part of an ambitious plan by MAPS and its president, Rick Doblin, to make MDMA an FDA-approved prescription medicine. MAPS considers itself a “non-profit pharmaceutical company” that focuses on treating illnesses with psychedelics and medical marijuana. It claims that it’s “the only organization in the world funding clinical trials of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. For-profit pharmaceutical companies are not interested in developing MDMA into a medicine because the patent for MDMA has expired.”
However, despite it’s effectiveness in treating PTSD, safety questions about Ecstasy still linger—for instance, will long-term use fry the serotonin receptors in your brain? A recent report released by theArchives of General Psychiatry concludes, “MDMA use produces chronic serotonin neurotoxicity in humans. Given the broad role of serotonin in human brain function, the possibility for therapeutic MDMA use, and the widespread recreational popularity of this drug, these results have critical public health implications.”
But others believe that the dangers of MDMA are overstated, especially when the drug is used in controlled settings. As Fix columnist Maia Szalavitz wrote in a column for TimeHealthland, “short-term use for the treatment of conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder is considered safe enough that the FDA has approved clinical trials... that are generating a great deal of excitement.”
MDMA releases a flood of the brain messengers serotonin and dopamine while increasing blood levels of the hormones oxytocin and prolactin, which promote social bonding. This potent mix diminishes fear and defensiveness and boosts empathy and the desire to connect with others. The drug’s “'empathogenic' effects suggest that MDMA might be useful to enhance the psychotherapy of people who struggle to feel connected to others, as may occur in association with autism, schizophrenia or antisocial personality disorder," said the authors of a landmark study last year in the journal Biological Psychiatry. "We found that MDMA produced friendliness, playfulness, and loving feelings, even when it was administered to people in a laboratory with little social contact.” As MAPS puts it, “the effects of MDMA that increase empathy and enhance communication are precisely the abilities that autism tends to degrade.”
Ecstasy was first used as a therapeutic tool by a dedicated network of psychologists in the '70s and '80s, but MDMA’s increasing popularity as a club drug lead the Drug Enforcement Administration to ban it in 1985. Doblin launched MAPS a year later to revive psychedelic research. Since then the group has supported over a dozen promising studies of MDMA, LSD and Ibogaine to treat PTSD migraine headaches and addiction, as well as anxiety and depression in cancer patients. It can induce euphoria, a sense of intimacy with others. These “empathogenic effects” suggest that the drug might be useful in helping patients who struggle to feel connected with others.
Whether autistic children will respond to the drug as favorably as war-scarred soldiers remains to be seen, but MAPS isn’t the first group to wonder about Ecstasy's effect on Autism. MDMA primarily affects neurons in the brain that use the neurotransmitter serotonin to communicate with other neurons. The serotonin system plays an important role in regulating mood, aggression, sleep, and sensitivity to pain. In a very early study in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs in 1986, researchers agreed with psychedelic pioneer Stanislav Grof that MDMA might mitigate autism by altering serotonin, and argued for the use of the compound for research purposes: “MDMA does not belong in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, as recommended by the DEA. Furthermore, it probably should not be placed in Schedule II either. To place MDMA in either category would sharply curtail research on this promising drug and its use in the field by practicing psychotherapists and other mental health professionals.”
One intriguing and highly speculative theory has been put forth by prominent neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran, author of Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind. Ramachandran, quoted at bigthink.com, said that malfunctioning “mirror neurons,” which fire when a person observes other people performing actions, “might be one of the major causes of autism… we all known that Ecstasy enhances empathy. It’s quite possible it is acting through the mirror neuron system. Especially parts that are concerned with emotional empathy. Maybe if you knew what transmitters were involved you can engineer drugs that tap into that.”
MAPS is actively soliciting reports, either positive or negative, of people with Autism Spectrum Disorders who have tried MDMA. If so, contact MAPS Lead Clinical Research Associate Berra Yazar-Klosinski, Ph.D. at berra@maps.org.
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Split Minded
Not Sure Anymore
Registered: 11/04/11
Posts: 1,992
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Re: Can Ecstasy Treat Autism? [Re: 5-HT2A]
#15484582 - 12/08/11 07:28 AM (12 years, 3 months ago) |
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am i the only one that sees this test of theirs deeply disturbing?
whats next? mushrooms?
-------------------- My senior year of high school one of the girls in my class got pulled over for her blinker not working. We told her that the reason it wasn't working was because she ran out of blinker fluid. The next day she came to school and goes "You guys are fucking assholes, I went to Autozone and asked for blinker fluid and they laughed at me and asked WTF I was talking about. - Gumby
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Lord_McLovin
mad scientist on shrooms
Registered: 04/09/11
Posts: 3,071
Loc: infinite dimensional void
Last seen: 6 years, 3 months
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Why do you believe this to be disturbing? They are looking at certain classes of substances and try to figure out whether some represantatives of them might be useful for specific medical problems. That's how you help people experiencing those problems.
Quote:
Whats next? mushrooms?
Actually there has been promising research going on using Psilocin for treating cluster headaches and as an additive to usual palliative medical care.
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sk8ordude
Stranger
Registered: 07/12/11
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Last seen: 11 years, 10 months
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Psychedelics do have a way showing people alternate perspectives that can be remembered when they are back to being sober. MDMA as a longterm "medication" doesn't seem like such a good idea for children, but sessions with a trained therapist could be extremely benificial, and is no worse then the crap they feed kids with ADD. But then again I've never done it, because the stuff on the street is suspect.
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durian_2008
Cornucopian Eating an Elephant
Registered: 04/02/08
Posts: 17,593
Loc: Raccoon City
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Re: Can Ecstasy Treat Autism? [Re: sk8ordude]
#15485085 - 12/08/11 10:29 AM (12 years, 3 months ago) |
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In particular, autistic people are supposed to be emotionally detached.
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thedream
The Most High
Registered: 12/25/10
Posts: 592
Last seen: 7 years, 4 months
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Re: Can Ecstasy Treat Autism? [Re: durian_2008]
#15485902 - 12/08/11 01:29 PM (12 years, 3 months ago) |
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Thank god for M.A.P.S, as they seem to be one of the few institutions who aren't scared off by the taboo of certain drugs that unjustly have a bad rap.
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Split Minded
Not Sure Anymore
Registered: 11/04/11
Posts: 1,992
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Re: Can Ecstasy Treat Autism? [Re: thedream]
#15485971 - 12/08/11 01:42 PM (12 years, 3 months ago) |
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"okay, giving them MDMA didnt work. lets try LSD! whats the worse thats can happen? hes already retarded..."
-------------------- My senior year of high school one of the girls in my class got pulled over for her blinker not working. We told her that the reason it wasn't working was because she ran out of blinker fluid. The next day she came to school and goes "You guys are fucking assholes, I went to Autozone and asked for blinker fluid and they laughed at me and asked WTF I was talking about. - Gumby
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Lord_McLovin
mad scientist on shrooms
Registered: 04/09/11
Posts: 3,071
Loc: infinite dimensional void
Last seen: 6 years, 3 months
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Quote:
Split Minded said: "okay, giving them MDMA didnt work. lets try LSD! whats the worse thats can happen? hes already retarded..."
First of all, I do understand your worries.
However, you should accept the fact that MAPS is doing serious research and they don't just give illegal drugs to random people hoping that it might help them.
MDMA was accepted as having the potential to become a very valuable tool for treating psychosis and PTSD prior to its scheduling as an illegal drug, which mainly happened because there were so many people (ab)using the drug in the club scene.
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Since then the group has supported over a dozen promising studies of MDMA, LSD and Ibogaine to treat PTSD migraine headaches and addiction, as well as anxiety and depression in cancer patients.
The article seems to suggest that MDMA and LSD are being tested for treating equivalent illnesses, yet this is not true. That sentence is somewhat misleading.
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Split Minded
Not Sure Anymore
Registered: 11/04/11
Posts: 1,992
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seriously?!
they are doing serious research...
these guys find loop holes to legally own and distribute drugs. testing MDMA on kids with autism is fucking nuts and the parents that agree to this are not only themselves, but are probably dippin' in on the test studies too.
this is not right in any shape or form.
-------------------- My senior year of high school one of the girls in my class got pulled over for her blinker not working. We told her that the reason it wasn't working was because she ran out of blinker fluid. The next day she came to school and goes "You guys are fucking assholes, I went to Autozone and asked for blinker fluid and they laughed at me and asked WTF I was talking about. - Gumby
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Lord_McLovin
mad scientist on shrooms
Registered: 04/09/11
Posts: 3,071
Loc: infinite dimensional void
Last seen: 6 years, 3 months
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You can say this about any pharmaceutical drug given to childen within the bounds of research. That is really a separate ethical question, which ought to be debated.
If you have a drug that looks promising for a specific disease, do you really think that any research on it should be stopped just because some government says it's illegal?
There are a lot of drugs out there approved by the FDA, which have many more side effects and worse ones than MDMA.
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Beanhead
IS IRONIC PARADOX
Registered: 10/11/08
Posts: 17,257
Loc: Geospatial inversion.
Last seen: 3 years, 7 months
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Quote:
Split Minded said: seriously?!
they are doing serious research...
these guys find loop holes to legally own and distribute drugs. testing MDMA on kids with autism is fucking nuts and the parents that agree to this are not only themselves, but are probably dippin' in on the test studies too.
this is not right in any shape or form.
hahahahahahhhaahha
oh you
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Split Minded
Not Sure Anymore
Registered: 11/04/11
Posts: 1,992
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Re: Can Ecstasy Treat Autism? [Re: Beanhead]
#15490599 - 12/09/11 11:43 AM (12 years, 3 months ago) |
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-------------------- My senior year of high school one of the girls in my class got pulled over for her blinker not working. We told her that the reason it wasn't working was because she ran out of blinker fluid. The next day she came to school and goes "You guys are fucking assholes, I went to Autozone and asked for blinker fluid and they laughed at me and asked WTF I was talking about. - Gumby
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Pilz
Think of the Children!
Registered: 10/19/10
Posts: 574
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weird, when i give x to autistic kids it doesnt seem to treat anything...
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Split Minded
Not Sure Anymore
Registered: 11/04/11
Posts: 1,992
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Re: Can Ecstasy Treat Autism? [Re: Pilz]
#15497049 - 12/10/11 07:08 PM (12 years, 3 months ago) |
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-------------------- My senior year of high school one of the girls in my class got pulled over for her blinker not working. We told her that the reason it wasn't working was because she ran out of blinker fluid. The next day she came to school and goes "You guys are fucking assholes, I went to Autozone and asked for blinker fluid and they laughed at me and asked WTF I was talking about. - Gumby
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