A team of psychotherapists at a Marin County clinic has now got permission to use ecstasy in therapy trials. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Dr. Philip Wolfson, San Anselmo psychiatrist and MDMA psychotherapy advocate is going to recruit 18 people for a study project, sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association For Psychedelic Studies.

Two months ago, the Drug Enforcement Agency gave his team the approval to administer the banned drug to patients.

Now, the US Food and Drug Administration has permitted Wolfson to conduct the study to see if psychotherapy sessions infused with ecstasy are helpful for patients suffering from traumatic anxiety or depression, including PTSD or not.

Wolfson stated that a psychedelic journey with MDMA can be 'transformationally potent' if used in a safe setting along with experienced and trained therapists. He told the San Francisco Chronicle that it's a substance supportive of deep, meaningful and rapidly effective psychotherapy. Moreover, there is some data to back up those claims.

A 2010 MAPS study was conducted with the help of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of PTSD. It determined that 83% of the subjects, who had been treated while on the drug no longer showed symptoms of PTSD. After it, in 2012, a follow-up study found that most of those subjects remained symptom free.

In Wolfson's study, 13 participants will take the drug, sitting through three eight-hour therapy sessions. The remaining five patients will be given a placebo capsule. Follow up and evaluation of the effectiveness could be taking around one year and three months.

Besides, like some other drugs, MDMA can also have serious side-effects, including an increased heart rate. It was the reason that the people with cardiac issues were not considered for this project.