Drugs Live: The Ecstasy Trial. Presenting original research on Channel 4

Scientific progress, and a televisual first

Watch it before the 27th of October

What was Drugs Live?

Two ISCD professors and their teams have been MRI scanning participants in a remarkable study of the effects of MDMA (pure ecstasy) on the human brain.

Val Curran and our Chair David Nutt of UCL and Imperial respectively, believe that MDMA’s notoriety and Class A status should not obstruct research or prevent therapeutic advances. Until Channel 4 stepped in though, it had proved impossible to secure funding for the study.

Channel 4 covered the costs, and on the day that the fMRI scanner screened the last participant to be given 83mg of MDMA, 2 million people watched Jon Snow present the first of two live television programs about real drug science.

The programs, with discussions and debate, gave the public access to the reality of drug research, and previewed some exciting new findings before they reach publication. These results support the hope that the unique properties of MDMA could be of therapeutic benefit to people suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The next step? David Nutt and colleagues are preparing to run the UK’s first clinical trial of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of PTSD.

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