MDMA Can Help Decrease Social Anxiety In Autistic Adults

Post Reply New Topic

I hated Effexor, and quitting it cold turkey sucked.

You also have decreased saliva which leads to tooth decay,The "jaw jack" can also seriously damage teeth.

In April 2017, the FDA approved MDMA, as a “breakthrough therapy” in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. The designation comes after 10-plus years of research and pressure from numerous angles, including psychotherapists and legal-cultural advocates such as MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. Although this endorsement was hard fought, the early evidence is impressive: MDMA used in conjunction with trained psychotherapists can have significant, positive and long-lasting effects for patients suffering from PTSD. And now, there is hope this remarkable effect can be utilized to treat additional diseases of dissociation and social stress.
Following the successes of MDMA for PTSD patients, doctors Alicia Danforth and Charles Grob suggested the drug may have a similar therapeutic potential for a surprising group of patients: adults with autism.

These issues present two major problems for the psychotherapeutic approaches which therapists typically apply. The first, patients with autism tend not to respond to commonly used drugs for anxiety-like behaviors, such as SSRIs and Benzodiazepines. Patients without autism will often use a combination of prescriptions and therapy to treat these clinical diagnoses. But for those with autism, whose social interactions are complicated by their disorder, it can often be difficult to form the extremely important “psychotherapeutic alliance” between therapist and patient.

MDMA is still illegal in the US, and patients with autism should be cautious about advertising from the rooftops their surreptitious experiments with the drug. Nonetheless, while conducting her research, Danforth found an exhaustive repository of anecdotes and first-person drug accounts exactly where you’d expect: on internet forums and message boards.

These impressions were bolstered via more thorough survey answers Danforth and Grob collected from 150 patients in 13 countries. Strikingly, there was not a single report of a serious adverse effect from taking the drug, despite the unscientific manner in which the drugs were taken. In addition to the anecdotes, Danforth and Grob also propose that the known (but incomplete) physiology of autism and social anxiety disorders may be directly affected by the known neurological effects of MDMA.

For example, MDMA has been shown to robustly increase oxytocin levels in the mammalian brain, where the neurohormone promotes positive social affiliations in mammals. Scientists know oxytocin levels are reduced in brains of people with autism. Danforth and Grob suggest the MDMA experience in conjunction with therapy may serve to correct this deficiency, reducing social anxiety.

Because it is an illegal drug, MDMA comes with a pervasive stigma, even among psychotherapists. Some autism advocacy groups are staying neutral on the topic until Danforth gathers new evidence, but others, such as the Autism Science Foundation, have spoken out strongly against the research in the past. The foundation maintains MDMA is neurotoxic, citing an old paper which has since been debunked and retracted.

Nonetheless, ethically, Danforth and Grob’s proposed study raises some concerns. MDMA can induce an intense experience, which patients with autism may be less well-equipped to handle than other types of patients. Additionally, the study requires adult patients who give their informed consent, but acquiring this informed consent from people with autism remains controversial in the field.

Danforth and Grob began their pilot study in March of 2014 with cautious optimism. As of July 2017, they have prescribed MDMA and psychotherapy for 12 adults with autism and comorbid social anxiety. They are currently preparing these results for publication, which will help determine whether more clinical trials will follow.
Both doctors are quick to point out that this treatment would not be a cure for autism.