Effectiveness of MDMA-assisted therapy for people with PTSD in the U.S., 2020

It is estimated that between 40 and 60 percent of the millions of people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) do not respond to regular treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (FDA-approved). Similarly, traditional psychotherapy appears not to be effective for every patient. Between 2018 and 2020, a group of researchers tested the effectiveness of MDMA-assisted therapy on patients suffering from PTSD. After three sessions of MDMA-assisted therapy, over the course of 18 weeks, 33 percent of the patients who received treatment still suffered from PTSD after the therapy sessions, therefore 67 percent of these patients no longer met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD, compared to 32 percent of the people who received a placebo.