FDA OKs Ecstasy Study in Cancer Patients

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Aug 5, 2002
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FDA OKs Ecstasy Study in Cancer Patients

LOLITA C. BALDOR

Associated Press


WASHINGTON - The illegal club drug Ecstasy can trigger euphoria among the dance club set, but can it ease the debilitating anxiety that cancer patients feel as they face their final days?

The Food and Drug Administration has approved a pilot study looking at whether the recreational hallucinogen can help terminally ill patients lessen their fears, quell thoughts of suicide and make it easier for them to deal with loved ones.

"End of life issues are very important and are getting more and more attention, and yet there are very few options for patients who are facing death," Dr. John Halpern, the Harvard research psychiatrist in charge of the study, said Monday.

The small, four-month study is expected to begin early next spring. It will test the drug's effects on 12 cancer patients from the Lahey Clinic Medical Center in the Boston area. The research is being sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a nonprofit group that plans to raise $250,000 to fund it.

MAPS, on its web site, touted the study's approval, saying "the longest day of winter has passed, and maybe so has the decades-long era of resistance to psychedelic research."

The FDA would not comment, but this will be the second FDA-approved study using Ecstasy this year. South Carolina researchers are studying the effects of Ecstasy on 20 patients suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.

Ecstasy, known scientifically as MDMA for methylenedioxymethamphetamine, is a chemical cousin of methamphetamine and typically induces feelings of euphoria, increased energy and sexual arousal. But it also suppresses appetite, thirst and the need to sleep, and in high doses can sharply increase body temperature, leading to kidney and heart failure, and death.

It peaked in 2001 as a trendy recreational drug used by youth at gatherings called "raves" and dance clubs.

Halpern, who has done other research on the effects of hallucinogenic drugs, said that some, when used properly, can have medical benefits. He said that unlike LSD, Ecstasy is "ego-friendly," and unlike some pain medications it does not oversedate people and make them foggy and unsteady.

Instead, he said, it can reduce stress and increase empathy. There are anecdotal reports, he said, of people dying of cancer who take Ecstasy and they are able to talk to their family and friends about death and other subjects they couldn't broach before.

"I'm hoping that we can find something that can be of use for people in their remaining days of life," he said. If there are no significant problems, he said broader studies would follow this one.

In addition to FDA approval, the study has also received review board authorization from the Lahey Clinic and Harvard Medical School's psychiatric facility, McLean Hospital. Halpern is awaiting a license from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

It's been more than 40 years since Harvard has been the site of psychedelic drug research - including the infamous LSD studies of Timothy Leary in 1963 and the Good Friday Experiment in 1965, done by Leary's student Walter Pahnke, studying the effects of psilocybin mushrooms on religious people.

But "this is not about trying to create some sensationalistic storm," Halpern said. "This is about trying to help these patients in a meaningful way."



What do ya'll think about that?
 

shep

Sicc OG
Oct 2, 2002
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i say give it a whirl. you know the stuff used will be top quality shit that is much safer than what you get on the street.
 
Jul 10, 2002
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^^^^
If I'm not mistaken, I believe that ecstacy was initially used in couples therapy...
We already know that the chronic is God's gift to us, and helps the sick, but in their last days them bezzels may do the trick, but also, once coming down, who knows how much sicker it'll make 'em... I wonder what the controls are?
 
Aug 5, 2002
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Jomodo said:
^^^^
but also, once coming down, who knows how much sicker it'll make 'em... I wonder what the controls are?

I hadn't thought about that. I wonder what their plan would be regarding that? Continuously feed them pills in order to keep the effects going? I would think it would create exhaustion amongst other side effects -- they wouldn't be able to sleep??
 
May 11, 2002
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EDJ said:
^ I NEVA TOOK IT. IS IT WORTH IT?

It's cool. I liked it when I did it. I would never do it again. I would never tell somebody to take it but at the same time I wouldn't tell them not to.

I would say it was worth it when I took it the first few times. Then I just did it to much. My brain just couldnt handle it anymore.

The worst part is the mornings.
 
Mar 13, 2003
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Cali Love said:
I hadn't thought about that. I wonder what their plan would be regarding that? Continuously feed them pills in order to keep the effects going? I would think it would create exhaustion amongst other side effects -- they wouldn't be able to sleep??
The ecstasy causes you to release all of the seratonin (the stuff that makes you feel happy) in your body all at once. Some people who take esctasy will also take pills that increase seratonin levels in there body to help the effects last longer. However, there is a point after taking ecstasy that your body no longer has seratonin to release. That's why you feel so down, your body is building up it's seratonin again and since it's been unaturally depleted it can't be released at normal levels until that down day of building it back up. By continually taking the ecstasy you would end up draining all of your seratonin completely and the chemical imbalance would msot lkely kill you.

Their studies will probably be made to find a way to boost seratonin output with out bursting it all in one shot. A more gradual drain of seratonin would cause the body to be happyier, without being completely fucking e-tarded. The final pill would probably boost seratonin along witht eh ecstasy effects so that you wouldn't deplete it at it's source. They may even give you a weeks supply of seratonin boosters before you even take the ecstasy.