Brief Answer: Answers for your questions Detailed Answer: Hello Thanks for the question again. Hallucinogens are a class of drugs which stand apart cause of its specific effect to induce hallucinations. The older ones also known as classic hallucinogens were Cannabis, LSD, mescaline and Psilocybin. However recently MDMA has superseded the use of the older hallucinogens and is coming to the fore. This I consider as a trend change. The easy production of MDMA and its less cost has made it a popular drug of abuse. The other trend that is fast catching up is combination of MDMA with other old conventional hallucinogens like "candy flipping" for MDMA combined with LSD, "hippy flipping" for MDMA with psilocybin mushrooms, or "kitty flipping" for MDMA with ketamine. Clinically the mode of treatment doesn't change much. However from the research point of view its essential that the drug intake pattern needs to be studied and also the long term side-effects of MDMA. There are plenty of medical news sites which keep updating you about the latest news on substance use. A couple of them which I frequently visit are WWW.WWWW.WW www.sciencedaily.com/news/health_medicine/illegal_drugs/‎ Along with these the regular research articles appearing in the British journal of Psychiatry and American Journal of Psychiatry make a good read. In India, fortunately the use of hallucinogens is still in its infancy. Probably the cost factor and factors related to the availability may be responsible for them. Hope that helps, Sorry for the delay due to some technical reasons. Will try t be more prompt from the next time. Kind regards Dr. Srikanth Reddy MD

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Brief Answer: MDMA in PTSD Detailed Answer: Hello Thanks for the patience, Due to some personal reasons there was a delay in answering the previous two questions. Looking forward to avoid the same in future. Use of MDMA is PTSD is a new phenomenon and still mostly in research phase. Two landmark articles stating the same in Journal of psycho pharmacology are : 1) Mithoefer MC, Wagner MT, Mithoefer AT, XXXXXXX L, XXXXXXX SF, Yazar-Klosinski B, Michel Y, Brewerton TD, Doblin R. Durability of improvement in post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and absence of harmful effects or drug dependency after 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine-assisted psychotherapy: a prospective long-term follow-up study. J Psychopharmacol. 2013 Jan;27(1):28-39. doi: 10.1177/0000. Epub 2012 Nov 20. 2) Mithoefer MC, Wagner MT, Mithoefer AT, XXXXXXX L, Doblin R. The safety and efficacy of {+/-}3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine-assisted psychotherapy in subjects with chronic, treatment-resistant posttraumatic stress disorder: the first randomized controlled pilot study. J Psychopharmacol. 2011 Apr;25(4):439-52. doi: 10.1177/0000. Epub 2010 Jul 19. Both these articles have supported the use of MDMA. The benefits are improvement in the PTSD symptoms without memory impairment. However its still not into routine use. The reasons being the controversies: 1) The possibility of abuse . 2) The laws of the state making it difficult to procure 3) Long term benefits are still not evaluated. 4) The studies mentioned are mostly of low sample size. 5) Blinding is difficult in such studies where the interventions are very subjective. EMDR is one technique which is quite free of controversies and is more effective for PTSD. As far as my personal experience goes, I have personally never advocated the use of MDMA for psychotherapy. Looking forward to have more fruitful discussions ..... Regards Dr. Srikanth Reddy

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