MDMA literature review

Aceso Under Glass recently published a literature review of MDMA (a), their notes underpinning the review.

The takeaway is that MDMA is quite dangerous, though as always more research is needed:

Unfortunately the evidence is very strongly on the side of “dangerous”.

Retrospective studies of long term [MDMA] users show cognitive deficits not found in other drug users, while animal studies show brain damage and inconsistent cognitive deficits.

The one bright spot is the MAPS study, which reported no drop in cognitive function after a therapeutic dose of MDMA, but we’ll talk about the problems with that later.