Maps // Current TV

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/harvard-study-published-in-addiction-shows-ecstasy-not-associated-with-cognitive-decline-116226594.html?utm_source=streamsend&utm_medium=email&utm_content=13417753&utm_campaign=Scientists%20and%20O%20Magazine%20Take%20Honest%20Look%20at%20Risks%20and%20Benefits%20of%20MDMA

Decades of government-funded studies have suggested that damage to cognitive skills like learning and memory is the primary negative consequence associated with heavy Ecstasy use. Both Ecstasy users and control subjects in those earlier studies had also used other drugs, so there was no way to know for sure whether the effects were due to Ecstasy, another drug, drug combinations, or something else entirely.

An ingenious tip from MAPS member Ben Stokes, Ph.D., an astrophysicist at the University of Utah, about a group of regular Ecstasy users who had not used other drugs was the spark prompting MAPS to propose and invest $15,000 in Dr. Halpern and colleagues’ pilot project. The results of this earlier project were published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence in 2004. Halpern and colleagues used this data as the basis for their successful NIDA grant application. The publication of the results from the new study was announced this morning in a MAPS press release.

Also today, Oprah Winfrey’s popular O Magazine published a compelling cover article focusing on MAPS’ studies of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD with the title "Can a Single Pill Change Your Life?" In the article, Sarah, who suffered from PTSD for twenty years as the result of severe childhood trauma, gives us a brutally honest look at her experience as a patient in MAPS’ groundbreaking study of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD. The article also discusses the reporter’s personal experience in an underground MDMA-assisted psychotherapy session.

A single pill can't change your life. But for Sarah and many other PTSD patients, a pill combined with MAPS’ psychotherapeutic approach can open a door—and hold it open long enough for them to step through.

No drug is a miracle cure, and no drug is without its risks. If we’re going to learn anything about what MDMA and other psychedelics can and can't do for us, then we’re going to have to confront our fear of these substances head-on. We’re going to have to do honest research and listen to patients’ most heartfelt stories. From the looks of it, that’s exactly what’s happening. And it's the direct result of essential past and future donations from MAPS members.

Awesome job, guys. See you at the clubshttp://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/harvard-study-published-in-addiction-shows-ecst... more