MDMA use in Couples Therapy
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Recently, the psychedelic MDMA has made a resurrection in the interest of psychiatrists, who are studying the potential of treating mental health issues and for MDMA couples therapy.
A recent study shows that MDMA can create profound feelings of introspection and can assist people in feeling closer to loved ones.
Known by its scientific name 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, it is known on the streets as ecstasy and molly. MDMA creates feelings of compassion and intimacy.
MDMA: Couples Therapy Introspection Study
The study looked at how MDMA affected how patients spoke about their friends and family to show prosocial outcomes. The study was published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.
The researchers discovered that patients talked about their relationships more in-depth and explained in more detail about intimate subjects as they were being influenced by MDMA.
The researchers for the study believe that MDMA can be very beneficial and could be used for couple’s therapy one day. MDMA was used in the 1980s as a good couple’s therapy tool.
MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for couples in the 1980s showed that couples felt closer to each other. They would rate one another as being more emotionally in tune, and couples would engage in a topic in much deeper conversations for longer.
The MDMA couples therapy study consisted of 35 healthy people—they all had previous experience with the psychedelic—patients did two MDMA psychotherapy sessions with a psychologist.
The participants would be given a placebo one session and MDMA the next session or vice versa, and the psychologists asked the patients to talk openly about their close relationships.
The Science of MDMA Couples Therapy
The applicants’ conversations were evaluated for social interaction, cognition, and content related to emotions.
Scientists discovered that MDMA encouraged increased sexual and social terms and words connecting negative and positive emotions.
The patients who used MDMA thoughts were more reflective and open about death and the future.
Dr. Matthew Baggott, a data scientist and neuroscientist at the University of Chicago, was the lead author for the study said, “the volunteers on a psychological level felt more confident and insightful about their feelings under MDMA’s influence.”
In the last few years, MDMA has been growing exponentially in the field of medicine.
Psychologists revealed that MDMA could be an effective therapy for depression, PTSD, anxiety relating to life-threatening diseases, and social anxiety in healthy adults.
MDMA-assisted psychotherapy with further research could soon be available for people who suffer from such mental health disorders.
Over the last few years, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) invested $20 million to make MDMA a legal prescription medication with FDA approval.
The MAPS MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD studies passed the first phase of the FDA clinical trials as a breakthrough therapy. It worked so well it was fast-tracked to the FDA’s phase three clinical trials, which are currently underway.
MDMA is classified as a Schedule I drug, which means it’s dangerous to public health and holds no medical value.
Although now, some medical community members believe it should be moved to a Schedule III drug, which would let doctors give it to patients for its therapeutic values.
