Australia

New Zealand Approves MDMA Therapy for PTSD Patients

Is this a lifeline for patients failed by other treatments or an experiment sold as medicine?

2 hours ago·Updated 1 hour ago

New Zealand Approves MDMA Therapy for PTSD Patients

Story

Above: A dose of MDMA in the office of Dr. Michael Mithoefer, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, on Aug. 24, 2017. Image credit: Travis Dove/Washington Post/Getty Images

The Spin

Pro-government narrative

PTSD wrecks lives and existing treatments too often fail, so opening a careful door to pharmaceutical grade MDMA is a win for suffering patients. Only two vetted psychiatrists can prescribe it, dosing happens in clinic under a full treatment plan and nobody takes pills home. Red tape should never be the reason Kiwis are denied a treatment that works.

New Zealand Government

Government-critical narrative

The evidence for MDMA-assisted therapy simply isn't there yet, and rolling it out to patients ahead of the science is reckless. The FDA rejected it over flawed study design and missing data, three supporting papers were retracted over data integrity, and the strongest trials show little real effect. Desperate patients deserve proven care, not an experiment sold as medicine.

The Conversation NZ Skeptics