Results from MAPS PBC’s study have demonstrated a biological correlation between a reduction in PTSD severity and treatment with MDMA-assisted therapy in veterans and first responders.
Specifically, functional connectivity (FC) between brain regions implicated in PTSD were associated with a reduction in PTSD severity following treatment with MDMA-assisted therapy.
The study also revealed a trend suggesting a strengthening of the resting state functional connectivity between the amygdala and the hippocampus, two regions of the brain that become dysregulated in PTSD.
The study has been published in Frontiers in Psychiatry.
Mark S. George, MD, Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Radiology and Neuroscience at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston and one of the study co-authors, commented: “This is an important brain imaging study because we can see how MDMA-assisted therapy actually turns down the fear and PTSD circuit in the brain.
“Although we are not imaging the direct brain regions where MDMA works, we can see, in a dose-dependent fashion, how the therapy may help reduce the fear response in the brain of patients with PTSD while they are remembering their trauma.
“This is an important early step.”
The purpose of the study was to investigate how MDMA may facilitate the therapeutic process by measuring brain activity and functional connectivity between key brain regions thought to be involved in PTSD in veterans and first responders with chronic PTSD before and two months after treatment with MDMA-assisted therapy.
Neuroimaging studies have played a critical role in contributing to the understanding of biological changes in the brain that can result from PTSD including the role of the amygdala and hippocampus.
The amygdala, known as the fear centre of the brain, is associated with threat recognition and heightened response to emotional memories and is often dysregulated in patients with PTSD. The hippocampus also plays a central role in PTSD and is thought to provide contextual information important for the cognitive processing of memories.
The results
Results showed that before treatment, participants had larger activation in areas of the brain involved in self-referential processing and autobiographical memory when they were listening to their individualised trauma audio script compared to when they were listening to their neutral audio script.
The study found that two months after the last treatment session, there was significantly less contrast between the trauma and neutral scripts in the cuneus suggesting decreased visual imagery during traumatic memories after MDMA-assisted therapy.
Finally, the study assessed pre- to post-therapy changes in FC during the autobiographical scans and these changes were correlated with PTSD symptom improvements. Of particular interest was the strong correlation between L-amygdala-insula FC changes and symptom improvement, as this functional connection is implicated in PTSD symptomology and anxiety.
CEO of MAPS PBC, Amy Emerson, commented: “These data add to our understanding of the biological rationale for using MDMA combined with therapy in the treatment of PTSD.
“The results suggest that treatment with MDMA-assisted therapy may help reset the dysregulation in the brain caused by PTSD and that the effects are durable even two months after treatment.”
