Saturday, May 29th, 2021
Special Edition: ‘Molly’ as Medicine? Psychedelics & PTSD
Listen below:
Tune in weekdays for 10-min daily news roundups:
Today we’re talking about psychedelic drugs and their potential use as medicine. A new study looked at whether small doses of MDMA, better known by street names like ecstasy and molly, can help treat post-traumatic stress disorder.
Some researchers are calling prescription psychedelics, paired with professional talk therapy, the breakthrough they’ve been waiting for. We got fascinating insights about the latest study from its lead scientist, Doctor Jennifer Mitchell. She’s a neurology professor at UC San Francisco.
But first, we’ll hear from Scott Ostrom, a Marine veteran who took part in the study. He says he struggled with PTSD for more than a decade after coming home from Iraq and that the MDMA treatments helped in ways other therapies had not.
This episode is brought to you by Stamps.com (Listen for the discount code) and BetterHelp.com/newsworthy
Get ad-free episodes by becoming an insider: www.theNewsWorthy.com/insider
Guest: Dr. Jennifer Mitchell
Dr. Jennifer Mitchell is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry and the Deputy Associate Chief of Staff for Research and Development at the San Francisco VA.
Over the past four years, she has worked on the development of psychedelic therapeutics for a range of psychiatric conditions including MDMA for PTSD and psilocybin for demoralization and depression.
She is a member of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics and the UCSF Neuroscape Psychedelics Division and has extensive and diverse experience with human and animal pharmacology, hypothesis-driven neuroscience, human proof-of-concept studies, translational models, and clinical trials.
Guest: Scott Ostrom
Scott Ostrom is a former Recon Marine who served in Iraq from 2003-2007. When Scott was discharged from the military, he moved to Telluride, Colorado, where he taught adaptive skiing as the company’s military liaison.
Ostrom participated in the MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy for PTSD research study sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. Ostrom enjoys helping others by sharing his life experiences.
Ostrom now lives with his partner, Jamie, and his service dog, Tim, in Berthoud, Colorado, where he runs his HVAC company.
Be sure to tune-in again each weekday (M-F) for our regular episodes to get quick, unbiased news roundups in ~10 minutes!