New York's Mount Sinai Hospital has been quietly conducting MDMA research in association with MAPS for the last several years. Now, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has launched the Center for Psychedelic Psychotherapy and Trauma Research. Founded in 1852, Mount Sinai ranks in the Top 20 of all hospitals in th U.S.
The primary focus of the center will be therapeutic use of MDMA (i.e. Ecstasy or Molly), magic mushrooms and other psychedelic drugs. The goals are to train and educate; conduct clinical trials; do research; and collaborate with other academic centers.
According to director Rachel Yehuda:
"People taking MDMA report feelings of introspection, connectedness, compassion towards self and others, empathy and increased interpersonal trust, which are optimal conditions for engaging in the processing of difficult or traumatic material. It's important that we listen to people's subjective experiences with these compounds and then study therapeutic possibilities through rigorous clinical trials."
Yehuda was trained to practise MDMA-assisted psychotherapy by MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies).
“MDMA-assisted psychotherapy has demonstrated greater therapeutic efficacy than any other psychotherapy or medication for PTSD,” she wrote in 2020.
Psilocybin therapy was recently decriminalized by voters in Oregon. Denver, Oakland, Ann Arbor, Santa Cruz and Washington, DC have all passed measures that decriminalize possession and use of hallucinogens like mushrooms and other entheogens.
