MDMA Treatment of PTSD Soundly Rejected by FDA Advisory Committee

Members of the FDA’s Psychopharmacological Drugs Advisory Committee voted strongly against recommending MDMA, also known as “ecstasy,” as a potential treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at their meeting on Tuesday.

On the question of whether the drug was effective, the vote was nine no and two yes. On the question of whether the overall benefits of the drug outweigh its risks, the vote was 10 no and one yes.

The FDA is not required to follow the recommendations of the committee, and had expressed its own doubts about the drug in its briefing documents, saying that clinicians also were able to guess what treatment their patients were taking, which could have influenced their assessment and scoring, the FDA noted.

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