FDA to evaluate psychedelic MDMA for treatment of PTSD for first time [Video]

• A panel of advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will meet to discuss a therapy based on the psychedelic drug MDMA for patients with post-traumatic stress disorder.
• The meeting is the farthest that a drug based on MDMA has ever reached in the FDA regulatory process for approval, following decades of activism.
• In clinical trials in over 190 patients, those who received doses of MDMA in addition to therapy showed a significant reduction in PTSD scores compared to placebo.

A panel of advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will meet on Tuesday to discuss a therapy based on the psychedelic drug MDMA for patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The meeting by the agency’s independent experts is the farthest that a drug based on MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy or molly, has ever reached in the FDA regulatory process for approval.

It follows a decades-long push by advocates who say …