PMID- 28635375
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20180420
LR  - 20240326
IS  - 1461-7285 (Electronic)
IS  - 0269-8811 (Print)
IS  - 0269-8811 (Linking)
VI  - 31
IP  - 8
DP  - 2017 Aug
TI  - Therapeutic effect of increased openness: Investigating mechanism of action in 
      MDMA-assisted psychotherapy.
PG  - 967-974
LID - 10.1177/0269881117711712 [doi]
AB  - A growing body of research suggests that traumatic events lead to persisting 
      personality change characterized by increased neuroticism. Relevantly, enduring 
      improvements in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms have been found in 
      response to 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)-assisted psychotherapy. 
      There is evidence that lasting changes in the personality feature of "openness" 
      occur in response to hallucinogens, and that this may potentially act as a 
      therapeutic mechanism of change. The present study investigated whether 
      heightened Openness and decreased Neuroticism served as a mechanism of change 
      within a randomized trial of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for chronic, 
      treatment-resistant PTSD. The Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) Global 
      Scores and NEO PI-R Personality Inventory (NEO) Openness and Neuroticism Scales 
      served as outcome measures. Results indicated that changes in Openness but not 
      Neuroticism played a moderating role in the relationship between reduced PTSD 
      symptoms and MDMA treatment. Following MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, increased 
      Openness and decreased Neuroticism when comparing baseline personality traits 
      with long-term follow-up traits also were found. These preliminary findings 
      suggest that the effect of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy extends beyond specific 
      PTSD symptomatology and fundamentally alters personality structure, resulting in 
      long-term persisting personality change. Results are discussed in terms of 
      possible mechanisms of psychotherapeutic change.
FAU - Wagner, Mark T
AU  - Wagner MT
AD  - 1 Department of Neurology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, USA.
FAU - Mithoefer, Michael C
AU  - Mithoefer MC
AD  - 2 Private Practice, Mount Pleasant, USA.
FAU - Mithoefer, Ann T
AU  - Mithoefer AT
AD  - 2 Private Practice, Mount Pleasant, USA.
FAU - MacAulay, Rebecca K
AU  - MacAulay RK
AD  - 3 Department of Psychology, University of Maine, Orono, USA.
FAU - Jerome, Lisa
AU  - Jerome L
AD  - 4 MAPS Public Benefit Corp (MPBC), Santa Cruz, USA.
FAU - Yazar-Klosinski, Berra
AU  - Yazar-Klosinski B
AD  - 5 Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, Santa Cruz, USA.
FAU - Doblin, Rick
AU  - Doblin R
AD  - 5 Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, Santa Cruz, USA.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Randomized Controlled Trial
DEP - 20170621
PL  - United States
TA  - J Psychopharmacol
JT  - Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England)
JID - 8907828
RN  - 0 (Hallucinogens)
RN  - KE1SEN21RM (N-Methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine)
SB  - IM
MH  - Adult
MH  - Combined Modality Therapy/*methods
MH  - Female
MH  - Hallucinogens/therapeutic use
MH  - Humans
MH  - Male
MH  - N-Methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine/*therapeutic use
MH  - Neuroticism/drug effects
MH  - Personality Inventory
MH  - Psychotherapy/*methods
MH  - Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic/*drug therapy
MH  - Treatment Outcome
MH  - Young Adult
PMC - PMC5544120
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - MDMA
OT  - NEO personality
OT  - openness
OT  - pharmacotherapy
OT  - posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
OT  - psychotherapy
OT  - treatment outcome
COIS- Declaration of conflicting interests: The author(s) declared the following 
      potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or 
      publication of this article: Mark Wagner received compensation from the sponsor 
      for acting as an independent rater on this study. Rebecca MacAulay has no 
      conflict of interest to declare. Mark Wagner, Michael Mithoefer, and Rebecca 
      MacAulay wrote the manuscript and conducted the analyses for this manuscript. The 
      study sponsor played a role in the study design (the investigators performed all 
      data collection). Three authors, Berra Yazar-Klosinski, Lisa Jerome, and Rick 
      Doblin, are employed by the sponsor (Doblin, Yazar-Klosinski) or a wholly owned 
      subsidiary of the sponsor (Jerome). Michael Mithoefer is a medical monitor for 
      other studies of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy that are currently being conducted 
      by the sponsor. He and Ann Mithoefer both received payment from the sponsor for 
      conducting this research, while developing a treatment manual, investigator 
      training program, and the design of protocols for additional studies planned by 
      the sponsor.
EDAT- 2017/06/22 06:00
MHDA- 2018/04/21 06:00
PMCR- 2017/08/04
CRDT- 2017/06/22 06:00
PHST- 2017/06/22 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2018/04/21 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2017/06/22 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2017/08/04 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 10.1177_0269881117711712 [pii]
AID - 10.1177/0269881117711712 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - J Psychopharmacol. 2017 Aug;31(8):967-974. doi: 10.1177/0269881117711712. Epub 
      2017 Jun 21.