OOn a cold night in November 2001, I locked the bathroom door at a women’s residential trauma center. As I got into the bathtub and started swallowing a large bottle of pills, my phone rang. It was my mom calling to say she was worried about me. “I’m fine, Mom, don’t worry,” I said. “I love you.” I hung up the phone and picked up the razor blades.
My suicide attempt was the culmination of a two-year journey spent mostly in institutionalized psychiatric care for symptoms of complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to childhood sexual abuse and terrorization. I went to the hospital willingly and remained hopeful, but after a litany of psychiatric drugs and months of abuse from a medical professional, I became discouraged. There was no treatment that worked for me, no escape or safe place to turn for care. Suicide seemed to be the only option.
Fortunately, paramedics were able to resuscitate me and my journey to recovery began. Coming so close to death made me choose life and gave me the motivation to spend 20 years trying every clinical and alternative therapy I could find to learn how to manage the symptoms.
At that time, I promised myself that I would find a way to help some of the 13 million Americans who suffer from PTSD, a chronic disorder that can occur after a traumatic situation and which disproportionately affects women and veterans. Untreated PTSD can leave you feeling like you have no other option but suicide or living in a medicated stupor of depression, night terrors, anxiety, and addiction.
Help is harder to find than it should be. There have been virtually no innovations in the treatment of PTSD for more than two decades. But that, I hope, is about to change. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will soon determine whether to approve MDMA to treat PTSD. It is our best hope to help people who are experiencing difficulties.
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MDMA-assisted therapy would be an entirely new treatment model. Over the course of 12 weeks, this treatment uses outpatient psychotherapy plus three one-day therapy sessions during which patients take MDMA. Neuroscientists to say The drug causes pleasant feelings of energy and openness, which paves the way for processing the trauma. Although its use is new in modern times, MDMA has been around for more than a century and it was used in psychotherapy for years before becoming illegal.
There has been a resurgence of scientific interest in psychedelic drugs for mental health problems, and the results of recent clinical trials of MDMA-assisted therapy are simply astonishing. In a 2023 to study published in Nature Medicine, 71% of people in the treatment group experienced such marked improvement that they no longer qualified for a PTSD diagnosis, and 86% experienced clinically meaningful reductions in their symptoms. The results show that the use of MDMA in sessions is almost twice as effective as therapy sessions without the medication.
As the leader of a philanthropic fund that supports PTSD research, I am a frontline witness to the urgent need for effective treatments. One in six women experience sexual abuse, which can lead to PTSD. I receive desperate requests for help from women all the time and have nowhere to send those in need. That’s why this can be such a game changer.
Although I am not an investor in Lykos Therapeutics, the company trying to bring this treatment to market, I philanthropically support several research centers carrying out MDMA-assisted therapy. I witnessed the transformational impacts on participants. “Sexual trauma often keeps women trapped in cycles of shame and silence, with no real hope for change,” says Kim Roddy, COO of Sunstone Therapies and recipient of one of our grants. “The participants we treated found greater agency, reduced PTSD symptoms, which allowed them to make different choices, and changed the course of their lives, breaking the cycles that kept them stuck.”
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Despite its promise, MDMA’s path to approval has been rocky. In June, an FDA advisory committee made the surprising decision not to recommend approval of MDMA-assisted therapy, citing concerns about the design of some of the studies, among other things. The committee was not used to including psychotherapy as a variable in assessing the effectiveness and risks of a medicine. On a declaration On July 7, respectfully dissenting from the committee, scientists and clinicians with experience in medication-assisted psychotherapy argued that concerns about the study design are not great enough to “call into question the main findings of the clinical trials”, that “events serious adverse events are rare”, and that “MDMA can now be used with therapy in the treatment of PTSD”.
I couldn’t agree more: we are on the threshold of innovative trauma treatment.
Because the advisory committee’s recommendation is non-binding, the FDA will consider its recommendation, the voices of experts and the deep unmet needs of PTSD patient populations when it decides in August whether to approve MDMA-assisted therapy. Now is the time for trauma survivors and their families to show support for this new approach.
Cristina Pearse, participant in a clinical trial that testified before the FDA advisory committee, she was just five years old when she was sexually assaulted. “PTSD is no longer my life sentence,” she said. “How many more people need to die before we approve an effective therapy?”
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The push for approval has bipartisan support. Members of Congress from both parties — along with veterans groups, some of the strongest advocates for MDMA-assisted therapy —called on the FDA to “follow the science”When they gathered on July 10 at the Capitol. There, they unveiled a tombstone displaying nearly 150,000 dog tags to draw attention to the fact that more soldiers have died by suicide than have been killed in war since 9/11.
I feel lucky that that cold November night more than 20 years ago was not my last. Since then, I’ve built a meaningful career and raised a beautiful family. But every day the scars on my wrists remind me to embrace the gift of this second chance and to dedicate my life to helping other victims become survivors who can truly thrive. MDMA-assisted therapy could offer a new way forward, if we are brave enough to open our minds to it.
The person who abused me threatened to torture and kill me if I spoke about it. The fact that I am writing this shows how much I believe in this treatment. I even plan to try it myself. Based on what I have observed in the results of these clinical trials and several investigative studies, I hope to develop a complete MDMA-assisted therapy protocol when it is legal.
Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I had access to this innovative treatment two decades ago. I wish my younger self and my fellow inpatients could receive it. But it’s not too late to save those who are suffering now.
If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis or thinking about suicide, call or text 988. In emergencies, call 911 or seek care at a local hospital or mental health professional.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
