The Effects of MDMA on Prefrontal and Amygdala Activation in PTSD
Double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised crossover neuroimaging study (n=20) testing single oral MDMA 1.5 mg/kg versus niacin 250 mg in adults with PTSD to assess mPFC and amygdala activation.
Details
This double-blind, randomised, within-subject crossover study uses HCP-style task and resting-state fMRI to determine the effects of MDMA on medial prefrontal cortex and amygdala activation in adults with PTSD.
Investigators hypothesise MDMA will increase mPFC and decrease amygdala responses to negative stimuli, and will relate these neural changes to performance on Ekman’s Emotional Facial Expression task and trauma severity.
Resting-state effects will be explored with Coupled Intrinsic Connectivity Distribution (Coupled-ICD) analyses. Participants receive single oral MDMA 1.5 mg/kg or niacin 250 mg with a 2-week washout before crossover; acute neural and behavioural responses plus preliminary connectivity data are collected.