MDMA Use In Psychotherapy

Those professionals who oppose MDMA use for psychotherapy argue that stimulants may cause many health problems that can bring patients into the hospital or complicate existing psychiatric conditions. For example, schizophrenia is more susceptible to recidivism, and panic attacks may increase in intensity and frequency. Chronic use of MDMA can lead to paranoid psychosis, but it usually disappears after a continuous period of abstinence. Some researchers suggest that MDMA use can lead to decline of cognitive ability in healthy young people. In general, they conclude that the described side effects are too dangerous for health and it is too irresponsible to include MDMA in Schedule III.
Among the positive MDMA use effects is empathogenesis

These are the most common positive effects (Freye, 2007).
The negative effects of MDMA use in psychotherapy include: enhanced anxiety, amnesia, frequent panic attacks, depression, mania (excessive excitation), suicide, insomnia, nightmares, depersonalization (when a person feels oneself unreal), derealization (when the surroundings seem unreal), hallucinations, flashbacks, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), paranoia and other persistent false states, automatic or repetitive behavior, dissociative disorders, irritability and aggression with mood changes, and increased risk of problems with other drugs.
There have been identified several MDMA effects on brain chemistry which may improve the psychotherapeutic process. It increases levels of oxytocin, the hormone in the brain that acts as a neurotransmitter. Increased neurotransmitter activity also takes place due to the release of norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine. After euphoria leaves a person, various negative effects occur. For example, there have been many cases of dehydration, hyperthermia, or lying on the floor for hours. All this leads to brain damage and causes many MDMA-related deaths (Freye,