MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Implications for Social Work Practice and Research
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ORIGINAL PAPER
MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Implications for Social Work Practice and Research Courtney A. Hutchison1 · Sara K. Bressi1
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract The pervasive impact of trauma across populations and stages of life has made it imperative that the field of social work remain at the forefront of trauma-informed theory, research, and practice. The limited, adjunctive use of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) in the psychotherapeutic treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a promising new treatment model that has shown impressive efficacy in phase I and II clinical trials. Preliminary meta-analysis suggests that MDMA-assisted psychotherapy (MDMA-PT) may be superior to prolonged exposure, a first-line treatment for PTSD, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted the treatment “breakthrough therapy” designation, a process of expedited review which signals that a treatment may demonstrate substantial improvement over existing therapies. Though these results are encouraging, much remains unknown and it is essential that the field of social work become informed and engaged in this new body of research. This paper will review the existing literature on MDMA-PT for PTSD, examine ethical and safety concerns, present a preliminary conceptualization of MDMA-PT’s impact on the therapeutic process, and discuss implications for future social work research and practice. This paper finds that the current literature suggests that MDMA-PT is a safe and efficacious treatment that has the potential to revolutionize the treatment of trauma. At the same time, issues of safety, cost, and accessibility should be examined in depth to ensure that this treatment—if approved by the FDA—is accessible to racially and economically marginalized clients. Keywords Trauma · PTSD · MDMA · Medication-assisted therapy Social workers have always sought to treat survivors of psychological trauma in a way that recognizes the feelings of “disempowerment and disconnection” central to their experience (Herman 1997, p. 133). Our understanding of what it means to empower survivors and restore connections, however, has necessarily evolved as other realms of clinical research, including the neurobiology of trauma and affect regulation, have increasingly informed social work practice (Cozolino 2017; Hill 2015). In light of this evolution, social workers are coming to conceptualize healing from trauma as occurring not only through the rebuilding of interpersonal trust and intimacy, but through the reintegration of dissociated parts of the self and the creation of new neurological connections that facilitate the processing * Courtney A. Hutchison [email protected] 1
Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, 300 Airdale Rd, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010, USA
of traumatic memory (Egan et al. 2011). As research into trauma-informed care continues to gain attention and spur new advancements in th
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