I don't know much about your other questions but for sure I can speak a little on this one:
streetsurfer said:
Could MDMA in actual fact be taken every day theraputically? Wouldn't there be a dose at which seritonin production is maximised in relation to tolerence? How could that be less than baseline levels? Wouldn't there have to be some effect?
A few things:
Serotonin is said to be a "delicate" system... where it takes days or weeks to reach baseline levels of serotonin in the serotogenic neurons. If I remember correctly, serotonin is a highly rate limited in it's production and does not "upregulate" it's production if at chronically low concentrations.
When you look at SSRI's and SSRE's, both seem to "modulate" the amount of serotonin *in the synapse* between neurons, but neither - as far as I know - produce a net additional amount or increase production of serotonin - they simply let the brain make it's existing supply of serotonin be more effective.
I don't think there are any studies to show if serotonin levels would "bounce back" from daily use of a drug such as MDMA. I doubt it.
There are many studies that try and show an association between lowered overall levels of serotonin (and it's receptors) and a general negative trend in mood and mental stability.
Most of the studies that try to prove MDMA as "harmful" try to look for reduced numbers of serotonin receptors or amounts of serotonin in various areas of the brain.
It should also be noted that we know very little about what exactly the function of the serotgenic neuron system in the brain does. We know that some serotonin producing neurons connect with up up to 500,000 other neurons... yeah. huge number.
I also read that there is a neat aspect of the serotogenic neurons that they, during consciousness, fire in regular bursts of about 3 times a second. Imagine all those neurons, firing 3 times a second, with the signal being received by millions of other neurons.... I say all this to warn that when you consider how vital it is for your serotonin levels (and neurons) to function adequately....... you end up playing with MANY unknowns.
I think the idea that you, after a number of weeks or months, of "less than recreational dosage", will arrive at some "baseline" that you feel is "happier" or "better" in any way to be the most unlikely outcome of your experiment.
You may want to check out what MAPS is doing with their theuraputic research:
MAPS - MDMA research