UK - Can MDMA help to cure depression though a Channel 4 study?

[edgarshade]

Guardian

Conal Urquhart
Saturday 15 September 2012 15.52 BST

With reader comments

It is thought to have 500,000 users in the UK, yet research into MDMA – the main ingredient in ecstasy – has been minimal. Now Channel 4 is funding a controversial study with volunteers including writer Lionel Shriver and actor Keith Allen.

The patient sits on a hospital gurney. The doctor asks how she feels, takes her blood pressure and gives her a capsule to swallow. She is then led to a brain scanner that resembles a giant washing machine, and she lies in front of it before it sucks her in. Doctors study a series of vivid images of her head and brain, looking for activity before she is allowed to leave the scanner. The patient is asked who she would like to have with her at this moment. She replies: "My husband."

When asked how she feels, she replies: "Light. It's pleasant. There's an airiness and openness to the senses. A slight heightening of sensory perception, which I liked. The visual feeling is vivid. The colours are lush, which I enjoy. I might be a bit more alert to sounds. I feel physically relaxed and that is a pleasure."

Drugs Live: The Ecstasy Trial is on Channel 4 on 26 and 27 September at 10pm

More...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/sep/16/mdma-drug-experiment-channel-4

 

[ro4eva]

David Nutt is a hero and a voice for all of us who have had our lives touched in a profoundly positive manner because we decided to try mdma. I also see him somewhat as a martyr. Someone who had the courage to stand up to several decades of bogus facts.

Thank you Channel 4 - thank you so much for funding this study. Thank you again for deciding to air part of it, so that ordinary Brits finally have a chance to witness - for themselves - the powerful and long-lasting therapeutic potential this wonderful drug can have on anyone it touches.

As someone who has experienced some rather traumatic events in his life - events which would continue to play over and over in my mind for years - I was desperate to rid myself of it all and move on with what life I had left. I went through years of psychotherapy via the usual antidepressants, neuroleptics and hypnotics one with lasting PTSD is usually given; but nothing worked.

All it took was one dose of mdma for me to experience something so powerful, yet peaceful; so vivid, yet clear and serene, that for the first time ever, I was able to explore any topic, any past memory which was too painful, too much to bear. I was able to calmly contemplate everything and it was all so clear, like it had occurred hours ago. Somehow, I didn't panic this time. I was able to finally come to terms with 'it' and received the closure I had longed for. Then I let it go and a tear streamed down my face, but I was smiling all the way. I accomplished in 4 hours while on mdma what I couldn't do in 3 years of therapy and a combination of about two-dozen psychiatric meds.

Then I rode off into the sunset, the credits began to play, and I lived happily ever after.

 

[AlphaMethylPhenyl]

Personally MDMA was of some help to me but I bet it also screwed me up and may have made my depression worse. I used it three times, though they weren't spaced properly and it was "ecstasy" pills. The come-down was HORRIBLE and acute effects lasted several weeks. If I do it again I bet I'd kill myself; such a horrible comedown.

^p.s. OP is the veritable anti-christ of DITM

 

[LogicSoDeveloped]

Personally MDMA was of some help to me but I bet it also screwed me up and may have made my depression worse. I used it three times, though they weren't spaced properly and it was "ecstasy" pills. The come-down was HORRIBLE and acute effects lasted several weeks. If I do it again I bet I'd kill myself; such a horrible comedown.

Pure MDMA might have a different effective though the pure stuff is hard to come by these days, sadly.

I can't say that MDMA use either helped or hurt my depression. I've taken it 10 times total over the course of 2 and 1/2 years, all spaced at least one month apart. I still suffer from depression but I also still abuse other drugs. If I worked out and improved my diet, I wonder if I would be rid of my depression.

Soooo many variables come into play for me.