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CNN Live Today
Daily Dose: Unwind With Ecstasy?
Aired February 26, 2004 - 11:43 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Federal authorities have cleared the way for the first study testing the drug ecstasy for use in therapy. CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has details in our "Daily Dose" of health news.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ecstasy became famous as a party drug for the young. MDMA, its formal name, is a powerful stimulant and anxiety reliever. It tends to make users open up in conversation.
Now MDMA was illegal in 1985, dozen of psychotherapists tried it on their patients.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was raped when I was 17.
GUPTA: This artist, who asked us not to identify her, was one of those early guinea pigs. The victim of a violent sexual assault, she was in and out of mental hospitals for eight years. The smallest reminder of the attack could trigger panic.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would begin to sweat and my body would kind of go into shock. And I would feel like I was being retraumatized.
GUPTA: Therapy, under the influence of MDMA, made a world of difference. Two sessions had a lasting effect.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I started remembering and not blocking it out. I knew I wasn't crazy. I knew that all those triggers of those eight years and all the pain I had those eight years were related to the rape and that I -- and that it was totally normal.
GUPTA: Are her results typical? South Carolina psychiatrist Michael Mithoefer wants to find out. In a tightly controlled setting, he's been given federal government approval to test MDMA on 20 women who suffer post-traumatic stress disorder, after screening to make sure they're physically healthy and not prone to side effects.
DR. MICHAEL MITHOEFER, LEAD RESEARCHER: Recreational use, the way kids use it at raves can be extremely dangerous and is not the same thing as using it in a securable kind of setting .
GUPTA: Hundreds of thousand people suffer from post-traumatic distress disorder. If this study and others still in the planning stages show really benefits from MDMA it could eventually become a standard treatment.
MITHOEFER: We owe it to them. I think that it would be irresponsible for the medical community not to investigate something like this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Maybe it was my last chance, or that I was willing to try it and if it didn't work, then I could just give up.
The way that I see it, is that I probably -- I probably would have died.
GUPTA: This woman was so thankful that three years ago she became a licensed therapist herself, hoping to help others in the same way.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 26, 2004 - 11:43 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Federal authorities have cleared the way for the first study testing the drug ecstasy for use in therapy. CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has details in our "Daily Dose" of health news.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ecstasy became famous as a party drug for the young. MDMA, its formal name, is a powerful stimulant and anxiety reliever. It tends to make users open up in conversation.
Now MDMA was illegal in 1985, dozen of psychotherapists tried it on their patients.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was raped when I was 17.
GUPTA: This artist, who asked us not to identify her, was one of those early guinea pigs. The victim of a violent sexual assault, she was in and out of mental hospitals for eight years. The smallest reminder of the attack could trigger panic.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would begin to sweat and my body would kind of go into shock. And I would feel like I was being retraumatized.
GUPTA: Therapy, under the influence of MDMA, made a world of difference. Two sessions had a lasting effect.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I started remembering and not blocking it out. I knew I wasn't crazy. I knew that all those triggers of those eight years and all the pain I had those eight years were related to the rape and that I -- and that it was totally normal.
GUPTA: Are her results typical? South Carolina psychiatrist Michael Mithoefer wants to find out. In a tightly controlled setting, he's been given federal government approval to test MDMA on 20 women who suffer post-traumatic stress disorder, after screening to make sure they're physically healthy and not prone to side effects.
DR. MICHAEL MITHOEFER, LEAD RESEARCHER: Recreational use, the way kids use it at raves can be extremely dangerous and is not the same thing as using it in a securable kind of setting .
GUPTA: Hundreds of thousand people suffer from post-traumatic distress disorder. If this study and others still in the planning stages show really benefits from MDMA it could eventually become a standard treatment.
MITHOEFER: We owe it to them. I think that it would be irresponsible for the medical community not to investigate something like this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Maybe it was my last chance, or that I was willing to try it and if it didn't work, then I could just give up.
The way that I see it, is that I probably -- I probably would have died.
GUPTA: This woman was so thankful that three years ago she became a licensed therapist herself, hoping to help others in the same way.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
