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US could soon approve MDMA therapy

nature.com

201–210 of 406 posts

Re: US could soon approve MDMA therapy

#201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not my experience. You can have someone with cancer openly talk about it, but any psychological issue is treated like it's your own personal fault.

"Europe" is many very different countries.

Please bring this same energy every time uses "Europe" in a positive light too.

Re: US could soon approve MDMA therapy

#202

I'd imagine pharmaceutical interests in the USA in the mental illness treatment & maintenance field are depressed by this news - it's going to crush their profit model if successful: > "And it’s unclear whether approving MDMA on the basis of MAPS’s data would ease the way for other companies hoping to study and develop the drug, or whether anyone would even want to. MDMA has been around since 1912 and cannot be paten…

I don't think it's going to replace ADHD medication whatsoever. How would that even work?

For non hyperactive types I believe there is commonly anxiety with the ADD which is alleviated by the small dose of amphetamine. Maybe MDMA helps reduce anxiety for the medium term after a dose? I don’t know if that’s been found scientifically yet. I do know MDMA clears anxiety during the high. Knowing what the lack of anxiety feels like could be very powerful paired with therapy to train a body to return to lower anxiety levels.

Re: US could soon approve MDMA therapy

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The more barriers to entry the less likely someone is to buy a gun on impulse or "just to have." When they're not common on the street it's not needed to carry one for defence either. You say that drugs busts etc. outside the US will often have guns involved. Yes, criminals can still find ways to get them but ordinary people won't be bothered with this. The Netherlands for example has Europe's biggest port in Rotterd…

>The rate of murder is 73 times more than the Netherlands. No the absolute number is 73x, the rate is like 8x. Since you've cherry picked a European state, I will now cherry pick the state New Hampshire. Murder rate New Hampshire: 0.9 / 100k [0] Murder rate Netherlands: ~0.6 / 100k [1] Also bear in mind the expected murder chance of the average person from the Netherlands dropped into the US is not expected to be any…

Apologies for the mix up with the rate. 8x is still on the side of my argument though.

I cherry picked the Netherlands because of the large amount of drug trade there. Every other country in Europe compared favorably to the United States.

From what I can see there is a similar level of diversity in the Netherlands and the US. In both countries around 30% of people are born abroad. In the US around 72% are white and in the NL around 76% are ethnically Dutch. In Rotterdam in particular around half of the population was born to Non-Dutch parents.

1. https://www.indexmundi.com/united_states/demographics_profil...

2. https://www.indexmundi.com/netherlands/demographics_profile....

3. https://www.coe.int/en/web/interculturalcities/rotterdam

Re: US could soon approve MDMA therapy

#204
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Foreigner views are readily dismissed because they are based on biased, sensationalized narrative-driven media coverage of rare events. You don't get US small-town local news in the EU, for instance, so have no reference for how many non-violent stories are aired by comparison - or how many stories cover a happy ending of a homeowner defending themselves successfully. You only get the bad stuff. Imagine if we got wee…

> Americans would start to believe you Europeans really need to get that knife situation under control. A lot of Americans unironically do believe that.

I wouldn't be able to find a link, but I recall a Travel StackExchange question a couple years back where a European was asking how to stay safe from gun violence during their vacation to the US. They were terrified they might be randomly shot by a stranger, or pulled over and shot by the police.

Obviously this view of the US is deeply misguided - but this is the problem our sensational media creates. It makes rare events seems commonplace and irrationally freaks people out.

Re: US could soon approve MDMA therapy

#205

Does anyone have a timeline of what the history of this has been? Because I'm fairly positive that I was going to sign up for MDMA therapy for chronic pain in Chicago ~5 years ago because a clinic nearby offered it. But when I got around to it insurance regulations had changed and was no longer going to cover part of it so it was going to be incredibly expensive. It's possible that was ketamine therapy but I thought…

Ketamine is sometimes used for chronic pain. It’s very expensive if the IV route is used.

Re: US could soon approve MDMA therapy

#206
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My views have changed about this a lot over the years. I've gone from feeling that medication is largely unnecessary and that there are alternative routes to feeling that carefully directed medications can and often should be used along with alternative therapies, when applicable. Just throwing medication at a problem and calling it a day will never be useful, but seeing a lot of people find success with a mix of med…

> Fixing society is a much larger (and ultimately fluid, unsolvable) problem so I feel like whatever people can do to find contentme But why is it unsolvable? As the parent comment noted, these issues aren't as prevalent in other cultures. So why here? Why is these so much pain that needs to be medicated? I'm not anti-meds. I think the re-introduction of MDMA and other formerly alternative meds is a good thing as the…

Poor family and community ties, a capitalism driven culture of dehumanization and commodification, and even people who are "making it" have often sacrificed and stressed a lot to escape poverty, so it's trading one pain for another.

Re: US could soon approve MDMA therapy

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The more barriers to entry the less likely someone is to buy a gun on impulse or "just to have." When they're not common on the street it's not needed to carry one for defence either. You say that drugs busts etc. outside the US will often have guns involved. Yes, criminals can still find ways to get them but ordinary people won't be bothered with this. The Netherlands for example has Europe's biggest port in Rotterd…

Murder rates have been going down in all developed nations, regardless of the gun ownership statistics. Even being gun regulation advocate, I cannot accept the premise that banning guns will do much to reduce murder rates.

But the homicide rate is still significantly higher where there is lax gun control right?

Re: US could soon approve MDMA therapy

#208
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's something about American culture that facilitates various psychological conditions. The aggressive, over-expressive, utilitarian individualism, the inability to just stay calm and quiet and think in solitude, the emphasis on material wealth and well-being and looking "sexy", the social warriorism and activism on the same issues.

Where are you getting this from? Movies?

That might explain this constant commentary I see from our European friends describing America with exaggerated stereotypes that bear little resemblance to reality.

Re: US could soon approve MDMA therapy

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does it have to be a significant percentage of the total? It's still contributing to avoidable life-changing trauma for the people involved.

Because all laws and bans are tradeoffs. By banning something that doesn't have a significant effect you might be throwing the baby out with the bathwater. How many lives are saved and traumas avoided through people's ability to defend themselves with guns? If that number is higher than the number of toddler accidents, gun ban would effectively cause an increase in PTSD and deaths. P.S.: just to clarify, by "signific…

That's a fair point. I took the premise to be that there was already a higher trauma rate in the US based on the fact that there is so apparently so much medication given out for trauma related issues compared to other countries. This had been suggested above but I didn't look into it further.

> How many lives are saved and traumas avoided through people's ability to defend themselves with guns

Self defence with guns sounds pretty traumatising for all involved to be fair.

Re: US could soon approve MDMA therapy

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does it have to be a significant percentage of the total? It's still contributing to avoidable life-changing trauma for the people involved.

It has to be a significant part of the total because it’s being used as an argument against introducing new treatments for PTSD.

I read it to be less against pharmaceutical treatments and more in support of preventative social measures.
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