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Making a medicine out of MDMA
1Ben Sessa, MBBS, MRCPsych, AddAction, Weston-Super-Mare, and Cardiff University; David Nutt, DM, FRCP, FRCPsych, FMedSci, Neuropsychopharmacology Unit, Division of Brain Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, UK.
Abstract:
From its first use 3,4,-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) has been recognised as a drug with therapeutic potential. Research on its clinical utility stopped when it entered the recreational drug scene but has slowly resurrected in the past decade. Currently there is enough evidence for MDMA to be removed from its Schedule 1 status of 'no medical use' and moved into Schedule 2 (alongside other misused but useful medicines such as heroin and amphetamine). Such a regulatory move would liberate its use as a medicine for patients experiencing severe mental illnesses such as treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder.