FDA OKs Ecstasy Study in Cancer Patients

[CountAllVotes]

WASHINGTON - The illegal club drug Ecstasy can trigger euphoria among the dance club set, but can it ease the debilitating anxiety that cancer patients feel as they face their final days?

The Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) has approved a pilot study looking at whether the recreational hallucinogen can help terminally ill patients lessen their fears, quell thoughts of suicide and make it easier for them to deal with loved ones.

"End of life issues are very important and are getting more and more attention, and yet there are very few options for patients who are facing death," Dr. John Halpern, the Harvard research psychiatrist in charge of the study, said Monday.

The small, four-month study is expected to begin early next spring. It will test the drug's effects on 12 cancer patients from the Lahey Clinic Medical Center in the Boston area. The research is being sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a nonprofit group that plans to raise $250,000 to fund it.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041227/ap_on_he_me/ecstasy_cancer_treatment

[Shakespeare]

1. But they won't approve similar studies for marijuana.

Why? Because big pharma can't profit from it. Ain't that swell? I hate these bastards.

[Born Free]

23. chemo sucks

If marijuana really does help alleviate the some of the side effects as fellow chemo patients have suggested, it really would be beneficial to allow it for treatment. Chemo is nothing more than a poison they put in your body that kills off good and bad cells, at first it isn't too bad but as time goes on; some, such as myself, really have trouble with it. It's not just the nausea and diarrhea but the various other ailments, such as sores in the nose, mouth, stomach etc and blisters on your feet, stuff you would never imagine. It's actually funny at times when the oncologist looks at you and says, yep, that's our fault, we're poisoning you - hopefully it will go away in a week or so.

[aquart]

2. Good grief.

When can we talk heroin for pain management, please?

[Tace]

4. Terminal Cancer Patients In Hospice Care Were Getting Morphine/Cocaine

cocktails when I did a radio documentary on hospice care in the Detroit area some 25 years ago. It really seemed to help them be comfortable and happy, or at least not miserable. Not sure what's going on today.

[beachgrl60]

6. they still are

getting lots of morphine, cocaine cocktails, fentanyl and dilaudid.

[goodboy]

5. soon, probably, since we invaded Afghanistan, it's been producing

more heroin than ever before. and it's getting cheaper

[ze_dscherman]

24. Not very suitable

There are better drugs of choice to alleviate pain. Heroin severely depresses the respiratory center.

[leesa]

27. So what? We are talking terminal care here and people in unimaginable

pain. You titrate the drug to keep things in balance. Someone in pain may have a respiratory rate in the 30s or 40s.

[goodboy]

3. there was a peter jennings special on "E" which showed a young

couple using it near the husband's untimely death from a kidney disorder. They videotaped their experience, and from what I remember, it really brought them closer together, and allowed them to face the reality of their situation. I support this study 100%.

[illflem]

7. LSD was tested as a treatment for alcoholism

when it was legal and the results were extremely promising but when it's use became popular and illegal the research was canned.

I always heard 'E' was physically damaging to your body.
Doesn't sound like a good option if that's the case.

[DS1]

8. Damage to the body is a moot point in these cases

:-(

[CountAllVotes]

9. true

When you've got 6 mos. to live, who cares? I say do whatever you must do to make your last days as liveable as possible.

[thegreatwildebeest]

10. Dubious...

Ecstasy, or MDMA, like any other drug produced, has negative side effects. However, much of its vaunted ill side effects have either been overblown or simply based off false data. It of course, increases blood pressure, heart rate, and does have short term effects on one brain (long term research has not been done yet).

As for LSD, its use as a therapy for alcoholism, amongst other things, was killed mostly out of a ridiculous fear of its hallucinegenic properties, its effect on the mind, and its possible effect on the body. In the end as its been found, LSD has zilvh to no affect on ones body, that its long term mental effects are pretty much nil, and that its hallucinegenic properties can be controlled at small dosage levels and the proper environment.

[intheflow]

19. A lot f side efects occur

because illegal drugs are more subject to abuse. Moderation is not a strong impulse in most Americans, imho. Unless they study effects at different doses there will always be problems with any illegal drug becoming legal no matter how compelling the anecdotal evidence is that they can be helpful pharmaceuticals.

[thegreatwildebeest]

21. Ridiculous...

That's ridiculous. Vicodin, codeine, DXM (an ingredient in cough syrup), and nitrous are more widely abused than most illegal drugs. The legality of a drug has nothing to do with either its potential for abuse or its lethalness. What it DOES have to do is who makes money. As most illegal drugs are unpatentable, they serve little interest to Big Pharma. That is why pain killers like Vicodin are legal and medicinal marijuana is outlawed.

[lildreamer316]

12. I have..

..done my research, and it is mostly as greatwildebeast says; the bad effects of x have been blown out of proportion to...guess what...instill fear. Sound familiar? Now, SINCE x is illegal, the way it is produced is inherently much more dangerous that if it was produced legally, therefore some of the things that it is laced/cut with ARE damaging to your body. The challenge for most ppl who take it recreationally is to get a good source of fairly clean MDMA or MDA and stick with it. As with anything, overindulgence will have a bad effect no matter who you are, and in my opinion it should be only taken by ppl who are reasonably well-adjusted to their life. It is a drug that you must be well-educated about to enjoy it properly and safely. When this is the case, the positive effects are wonderful. Most x "addicts" are psychologically addicted, not physically. Just thought I would educate a little, since the opportunity presented itself. Forgive the ramble O8)

[annabanana]

13. thanx for the info....

not my generation's recreational drug of choice (but I'll bet my kid knows some partakers.)

[lildreamer316]

16. No prob; for more see post #14 n/t

[NuttyFluffers]

17. You are quite right, in fact gov't agencies agree with you (in a way)

visit the CDC, NIAA, NDIS(?), and countless other federal institutions that have several studies and intimate data of the results of these drugs. most of the information they produce show that the most safe class of drugs, both metabolically and in terms of physical and psychological addiction, are hallucinogens.

few dangerous mixings (completely unlike alcohol -- the most dangerous to mix with), generally safe to the liver and kidneys (they process out quickly), generally not addictive, and with proper precautions (hydration, proper environment -- like not atop a skyscraper surrounded by sharp metal objects, and preventative measures to ease the 'down time' -- the flood of dopamine) can be incredibly safe. far more so than alcohol has ever been, easily.

most of the scare tactics are blatant lies. some of them talk about people who had 20 tablet a day habits -- which is the equivalent of 20x the amount you'd drink of alcohol to get drunk (if you did that with alcohol you'd just up and die, with this, you just get 'holes on your brain' -- you figure which is more dangerous). some use studies where they inject several hundred times the human dosage *into rats* and call that conclusive evidence (which is the equivalent of a human taking several 1000x the amount). there's already been one major researcher (who is still oft quoted) in MDMA who's methodology has already been shown as faulty and dliberately slanted. and far too often we've had MDMA-similar drugs (the 'mimics') blamed for things that MDMA *cannot* cause. most of the info dumped on 'the teevee ads' is utter garbage. in fact, most of the fed gov'ts agencies directly contradict them, which makes it all the funnier.

i'm also interested in the uses of MDMA in Parkinson's patients. it seems that parkinson's is related to an over-production of serotonin which cannot convert into dopamine. this lack of dopamine and oversaturation of serotonine causes the muscles to continuously spasm uncontrollably, diminishing quality of life. they've noticed MDMA's remarkable ability to not only dump serotonin into the muscles to produce a euphoric effect, but also a fascinating effect of forcing the brain to convert serotonin that has been used into dopamine. essentially they are seeing MDMA create positive change in the lives in parkinson's sufferers by emptying out some of that serotonin and converting it into much needed dopamine. there still needs to be more studies on MDMA for this use, but it looks rather promising.

ps: as long as you stay hydrated and cool, and pace your intake of MDMA with gaps of several days to recover your serotonin, you're pretty much safe. if so many stupid people would actually test their 'candy from strangers' to make sure it isn't mixed with poison, and if they didn't drink alcohol with it (alcohol + anything is pretty stupid. very dangerous drug to mix), and if clubs wouldn't charge eye gouging prices for water ($10 for a bottle of water should be a crime, imho) then you wouldn't have all these boogeyman stories to feed the mindless, ravenous media to feed to the ignorant masses.

[lildreamer316]

22. Yeah..

..more ppl need to get the test kits for themselves and share in their communities, and I cannot figure out why all these kids think it is ok to mix this stuff with alcohol. LAST thing you ever want to do,and why in the hell would you want to interfere with the x effects anyway, even if you did not know it was dangerous? Well, stupid questions all, I just get irritated. X hasn't had enough exposure in general for most ppl to get the urban lore straight about what is safe and what is not. Don't get me wrong, I am not advocating this in any way(there..disclaimer out of the way),but ppl will be ppl. It's going to happen. Anyway...thanks for reading!;)

[KingoftheJungle]

11. Researchers are also petitioning the FDA for LSD studies on ...

cluster headaches, as LSD has an enormous potential for treating both cluster and migrane headaches. Let's hope they allow it to go through, as both the MDMA and Magic mushroom experiments have been smashing success stories so far.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27716-2004Dec26.html

[LifeDuringWartime]

14. MDMA is not a hallucinogen

http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/mdma/mdma.shtml

[NuttyFluffers]

18. a stimulant with hallucinogenic effects. has also been classified as...

hallucinogen with stimulant effects. it's a crossover and has been categorized as both. check the fed gov't chem sites. CDC, NDIS, etc. multiple sources bounce MDMA between the two categories.

[ze_dscherman]

26. Classification is one thing

The actual properties another. MDMA can't be compared with the classic hallucinogens like LSD, Mescaline or Psilocybin.

[spanone]

15. ...but light a joint for chemo pain and go to jail.

Ecstasy can be controlled by the pharma companies. Marijuana can't. It's about money, not pain and suffering.

[lateo]

20. What makes your body rock?!?!?!

Ecstasy
Ecstasy

[ze_dscherman]

25. Interesting wording

Just by the wording of the article, a negative bias has been given to the research. The study is done on a "illegal club drug", a "recreational hallucinogen" (wrong, it's not hallucinogenic), that causes "euphoria".

Written correctly, they should have said that the research was re-uptaken on MDMA, a drug long know for it's potential in psychological treatment, that got into the dance club scene and became banned.

Also, it's not the euphoria that is sought in treatment, but the access to people's feeling it may provide in a proper context, enabling them to deal with pain, suffering and loss.

But the FDA approval is a very good thing in itself.

BTW, when I did my "civil service" (instead of military), I worked in a psychiatric clinic where LSD-treatment on a research base was still going on. Never had to do with it personally, but results sounded pretty impressive.