Plan B Forum

Modified ecstasy could one day have a role to play in fighting some blood cancers, according to scientists.

Ecstasy is known to kill some cancer cells, but scientists have increased its effectiveness 100-fold, they said in Investigational New Drugs journal.

Their early study showed all leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma cells could be killed in a test tube, but any treatment would be a decade away.

A charity said the findings were a "significant step forward".

In 2006, a research team at the University of Birmingham showed that ecstasy and anti-depressants such as Prozac had the potential to stop cancers growing.

The problem was that it needed doses so high they would have been fatal if given to people.

The researchers, in collaboration with the University of Western Australia, have chemically re-engineered ecstasy by taking some atoms away and putting new ones in their place.

One variant increased cancer-fighting effectiveness 100-fold. It means that if 100g of un-modified ecstasy was needed to get the desired effect, only 1g of the modified ecstasy would be needed to have the same effect.

Scientists say this also reduced the toxic effect on the brain.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14572284

The first clinical trial of ecstasy in the UK to discover if the drug can help victims of child abuse, rape and war is being planned.

Public concerns and media exposure has made it almost impossible to explore the therapeutic benefits of ecstasy, claim scientists.

But they believe that the illegal drug and others like LSD and magic mushrooms could useful in the treatment of people with serious psychological issues who cannot face their problems.
Professor David Nutt, former head of the government's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, said: 'I feel quite strongly that many drugs with therapeutic potential have been denied to patients and researchers because of the drugs regulation.
Backing research: Professor David Nutt

Backing research: Professor David Nutt

'The drugs have been made illegal in a vain attempt to stop kids using them, but people haven't thought about the negative consequences.'

The psychopharmacologist - sacked by the previous Labour government after falling out with ministers over drug policy - has teamed up with Taunton-based psychiatrist Dr Ben Sessa as they bid for funding.

They hope to repeat successful U.S. trials on 20 patients in South Carolina who had suffered from post traumatic stress disorder for an average of 19 years.

One of the patients was an army veteran, while the others had been victims of sexual abuse or rape.

Twelve were given MDMA, or 3,4- methylenedioxymethamphetamine, the chemical compound found pure in ecstasy tablets.

The rest had placebo pills but were later also given the chance to take MDMA. Each patients had a therapy session, lying back in a reclining chair in a pleasant flower-decorated room wearing an eye mask.

They listened to music on headphones or talked to a therapist while thinking about the events they had been unable to contemplate in past consultations, according to the Guardian.

Ten out of the 12 patients showed dramatic improvement to their condition two months after the second of two MDMA sessions.

That figure compared with 25 per cent of those on the placebo. There were no serious side-effects and no long-term problems.

Mr Michael Mithoefer, the psychiatrist who ran the U.S. study and carried out the psychotherapy with his wife, Ann, said he expected the trials to be a success.

He described the improvement in the patients' condition as 'the icing on the cake.'

Professor Nutt said the stress disorder was 'an extraordinarily disabling condition'

He added: 'For many people, as soon as the memory comes into consciousness, so does the fear and disgust'.

The patients told the newspaper how ecstasy had helped them overcome their traumatic experiences.

One said: 'I feel like I know myself better than I ever have before. Now I know I'm a normal person. This is me. The medicine helps, but this is in me.'

Sessa said he hoped to recreate the study in the UK but the researchers will use brain scans to see what effect the drug has on patients.

Meanwhile, a single high dose of so-called 'magic' mushrooms has been found to change people's personalities, not for a few hours, but for at least a year - making them more 'open', said researchers.

The personality disruptions were so intense they were equivalent to the slow changes that occur in people over entire decades - and the researchers found that even after terrifying drug trips, the changes were the same.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1ZfcDfdS9