“After 100 years of modern psychiatry our treatments are really poor”
‘After 100 years of modern psychiatry our treatments are really poor‘, says Dr. Ben Sessa on the website of the British newspaper The Guardian. An affirmation justifying a new experimentation that will begin in the months to come: the treatment of alcoholism via doses of MDMA capsule. The study will be conducted in Bristol, in the south of England, on twenty alcohol-dependent patients who relapsed after trying to stop drinking.
In parallel with psychiatric sessions, the prescription of this drug should allow patients to finally cure their alcoholism. 90% of those treated more conventionally relapse within three years after the beginning of the care specifies Dr. Ben Sessa. MDMA is used to “to enhance the relationship between the therapist and the patient, and it allows us to dig down and get to the heart of the problems that drive long-term mental illness.”
MDMA already used as a treatment in other pathologies
In the United States, MDMA therapy is also used, this time to treat post-traumatic disorders, especially among war veterans. The study is in its third phase of testing and the US administration could authorize this mode of treatment by 2021, if the conclusions are positive.
GHB as an alternative
Whether it is to treat alcoholism or to deal with the mental disorders of veterans, MDMA is therefore mainly used to improve the effectiveness of sessions with a psychiatrist. Another psychotropic drug, like LSD, would have the same effect.
Conversely, other drugs are used for their direct effects on addiction. For example, studies have been conducted on sodium oxybate, the other name for GHB, which is known as the “rapist drug” since it sexually disinhibits the victims. The GHB, on which Dr. Philippe Batel has worked, has properties of “pure GABAergic”, which prevents neurons from releasing dopamine and thus decreases the urge to drink alcohol.
A drug derived from GHB, the Alcover® was to be put on the market in 2016. However, this is still not the case, probably because of fears of its use.