Natalie Ginsberg,  Global Impact Officer, MAPS, joins Cheddar Reveals to discuss MAPS organization and its current initiatives and their work to get FDA approval for MDMA to treat PTSD.

Cheddar Reveals

Breakthroughs in MDMA-Assisted Therapy to Treat PTSD

Welcome back to Cheddar reveals, brought to you by curiosity stream. M. D. M. A. Also known as ecstasy, ecstasy is known mainly as a club or street drug, but now it's being touted as a medicine for people struggling with severe depression and PTSD with the FDA designating it a quote breakthrough therapy after early trials. Joining us now is Natalie Ginsburg, global impact Officer for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies or maps maps. Natalie has been working with the FDA to get approval for M. D. M. A. To treat PTSD. So let's just start with this Y. M. D. M. A. Thank you so much for having me today. Um M. D. M. A. Is used for a number of reasons. Um First of all, it's actually works by reducing the fear activation in our amygdala, the part of our brain that processes fear. And it also helps increase oxytocin, dopamine serotonin. You know, oxytocin you might recognize as the chemical. Um we create when we're breastfeeding or giving hugs or kind of the love love feeling. So this combination of chemicals allows us to revisit um the site of our trauma without all of the fear that's usually associated. And then we can kind of re process that trauma in a much more healing type way. So building on that. How effective have you found M. D. M. A assisted psychotherapy as a treatment. We found it incredibly effective. Our Phase three research actually shows 67% of participants no longer qualify with PTSD, which is really huge. The only other psychiatric treatments currently approved by the FDA for PTSD are Zoloft and Paxil and they're around 50% effective in reducing symptoms because they're really focused on the symptoms reduction while M. D. M. A. Therapy works by addressing the root source of the trauma. M. D. M. A. Therapy is also only three sessions, you know, in our protocol while these other medicines are taken daily in terms of potential kind of broader implications here, one of the disorders can M. D. M. A. Assisted therapy treat. So we're really excited that there's more and more research occurring right now. We've ourselves done research with MGM A therapy for social anxiety and autistic adults for anxiety associated with life threatening illnesses. Um we're doing M. D. M. A therapy in a group context and in a group study also for couples therapy. We're also starting a study for the M. D. M. A. For eating disorders and M. D. M. A. For alcohol addiction. So there's really a wide range of use cases potentially. And we're just eager to see more research being conducted. You know, other studies have come out of this sector using drugs like ketamine to treat alcohol use disorder. What are your biggest takeaways from these types of studies? Sure, it's been really encouraging to see that my biggest takeaway from the ketamine study is actually how important it is to have ketamine assisted therapy. That study was a study where people had therapists and had integration after and we saw really incredible results and academy in therapy is currently the only legal psychedelic therapy in the US, but often it's just administered without the therapy and ketamine clinics. So my biggest takeaway is how key the therapeutic component is with the medicine for those kind of UCB studies and think that this is just trading one drug in for another. What do you say to them? I think that's an important question. Um though I would say first of all um problematic substance use and addiction is really very closely correlated with early childhood trauma. Um So addiction is often people self medicating and you know, and M. D. M. A. Therapy allows people to really get academy therapy to get to the root source of that trauma. So it's kind of a different use of the substances, you know, and it can be a far fewer treatments are protocol only has three sessions for MGM A. Um but I also think it's important to note things like cannabis can also be um really effective replacements for opiates or alcohol. And even if people use cannabis every day that it's not lethal and it's far safer than using some one of those other substances. Um so I invite people to to use an open mind, certainly with that open, you know, openness in mind and and you know, just the benefits that you've outlined here. I wonder then what are the obstacles in legalizing these treatments and increasing availability to those who need them or could benefit from this? Sure. So really one of the biggest obstacles right now is getting this treatment out to people and making sure it's accessible for people from all backgrounds. So training therapists and commercializing this medicine is really right where we're at. And we're actually currently, I'm proud. We've done this work with maps for over 35 years all driven by philanthropy. But actually right now, we're at the juncture, we're raising $70 million for commercialization, um, in a really exciting innovative system where we're still retaining 100% our equity, um, and our nonprofit status, but we actually fully own a public benefit corp So we yeah, so that's really our exciting new way of inviting investors in to participate in a revenue share and help us get this treatment out to as many people as possible, interesting development in this treatment and in this space. Really appreciate your insight here Natalie Ginsburg, Global Impact Officer for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies