PMID- 32538252
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20220119
LR  - 20220123
IS  - 1461-7285 (Electronic)
IS  - 0269-8811 (Print)
IS  - 0269-8811 (Linking)
VI  - 35
IP  - 5
DP  - 2021 May
TI  - Acute effects of MDMA on trust, cooperative behaviour and empathy: A 
      double-blind, placebo-controlled experiment.
PG  - 547-555
LID - 10.1177/0269881120926673 [doi]
AB  - BACKGROUND: 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is being actively researched 
      as an adjunct to psychotherapy. It may be beneficial to trust, empathy and 
      cooperative behaviour due to its acute prosocial effects. AIM: To test (a) the 
      acute effects of MDMA on measures of empathy, trust and cooperative behaviour, 
      and (b) subacute changes in mood three days after MDMA administration. METHODS: 
      Twenty-five participants (n=7 female), participated in this double-blind, 
      repeated-measures, placebo-controlled experiment. Participants attended two acute 
      sessions, one week apart. Each acute session was followed by a subacute session 
      three days later. Participants received placebo (100 mg ascorbic acid) during one 
      acute session, and MDMA (100 mg MDMA-HCl) at the other, with order 
      counterbalanced. Participants completed the following tasks assessing prosocial 
      behaviour: a trust investment task, a trustworthy face rating task, an empathic 
      stories task, a public project game, a dictator game and an ultimatum game. 
      Participants reported subjective effects. Blood was taken pre-drug, 2 and 4 hours 
      post-drug, and tested for plasma MDMA levels. RESULTS: MDMA acutely increased 
      self-reported 'closeness to others' and 'euphoria' and increased plasma 
      concentrations of MDMA. MDMA did not significantly change task-based empathy, 
      trust or cooperative behaviour. Using Bayesian analyses, we found evidence that 
      MDMA and placebo did not differ in their effects on empathy and cooperative 
      behaviour. MDMA did not significantly change subacute mood and this was supported 
      by our Bayesian analyses. CONCLUSION: Despite augmentation in plasma MDMA levels 
      and subjective drug effects, we found no increase in prosocial behaviour in a 
      laboratory setting.
FAU - Borissova, Anna
AU  - Borissova A
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0003-3847-8512
AD  - Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit, UCL, London, UK.
AD  - NIHR University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre, University 
      College Hospital, London, UK.
FAU - Ferguson, Bart
AU  - Ferguson B
AD  - UMC Utrecht Brain Center, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The 
      Netherlands.
FAU - Wall, Matthew B
AU  - Wall MB
AD  - Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit, UCL, London, UK.
AD  - Invicro London, London, UK.
AD  - Neuropsychopharmacology Unit, Centre for Psychiatry, Imperial College London, 
      London, UK.
FAU - Morgan, Celia Ja
AU  - Morgan CJ
AD  - Psychopharmacology and Addiction Research Centre, University of Exeter, Exeter, 
      UK.
FAU - Carhart-Harris, Robin L
AU  - Carhart-Harris RL
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-6062-7150
AD  - Neuropsychopharmacology Unit, Centre for Psychiatry, Imperial College London, 
      London, UK.
AD  - Centre for Psychedelic Research, Department of Psychiatry, Imperial College 
      London, London, UK.
FAU - Bolstridge, Mark
AU  - Bolstridge M
AD  - Neuropsychopharmacology Unit, Centre for Psychiatry, Imperial College London, 
      London, UK.
FAU - Bloomfield, Michael Ap
AU  - Bloomfield MA
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-1972-4610
AD  - Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit, UCL, London, UK.
AD  - NIHR University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre, University 
      College Hospital, London, UK.
AD  - Translational Psychiatry Research Group, Research Department of Mental Health 
      Neuroscience, Division of Psychiatry University College London, London, UK.
AD  - The Traumatic Stress Clinic, St Pancras Hospital, Camden and Islington NHS 
      Foundation Trust, London, UK.
AD  - National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London, UK.
FAU - Williams, Tim M
AU  - Williams TM
AD  - Neuropsychopharmacology Unit, Centre for Psychiatry, Imperial College London, 
      London, UK.
FAU - Feilding, Amanda
AU  - Feilding A
AD  - Beckley Foundation, Oxford, UK.
FAU - Murphy, Kevin
AU  - Murphy K
AD  - Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre, Cardiff, UK.
FAU - Tyacke, Robin J
AU  - Tyacke RJ
AD  - Neuropsychopharmacology Unit, Centre for Psychiatry, Imperial College London, 
      London, UK.
FAU - Erritzoe, David
AU  - Erritzoe D
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-7022-6211
AD  - Neuropsychopharmacology Unit, Centre for Psychiatry, Imperial College London, 
      London, UK.
AD  - Centre for Psychedelic Research, Department of Psychiatry, Imperial College 
      London, London, UK.
FAU - Stewart, Lorna
AU  - Stewart L
AD  - Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit, UCL, London, UK.
FAU - Wolff, Kim
AU  - Wolff K
AD  - School of Biomedical Sciences, King's College London, London, UK.
FAU - Nutt, David
AU  - Nutt D
AD  - Neuropsychopharmacology Unit, Centre for Psychiatry, Imperial College London, 
      London, UK.
FAU - Curran, H Valerie
AU  - Curran HV
AD  - Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit, UCL, London, UK.
FAU - Lawn, Will
AU  - Lawn W
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-0143-2724
AD  - Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit, UCL, London, UK.
LA  - eng
PT  - Controlled Clinical Trial
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20200615
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  - Affect/*drug effects
MH  - Bayes Theorem
MH  - Cooperative Behavior
MH  - Double-Blind Method
MH  - Empathy/*drug effects
MH  - Female
MH  - Hallucinogens/blood/pharmacology
MH  - Humans
MH  - Male
MH  - Middle Aged
MH  - N-Methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine/blood/*pharmacology
MH  - Social Behavior
MH  - Trust/*psychology
MH  - Young Adult
PMC - PMC8155732
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - MDMA
OT  - cooperative behaviour
OT  - empathy
OT  - prosocial
OT  - trust
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: Author AF funded part of the study through the 
      non-profit Beckley Foundation.
EDAT- 2020/06/17 06:00
MHDA- 2022/01/20 06:00
PMCR- 2021/05/27
CRDT- 2020/06/16 06:00
PHST- 2020/06/17 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2022/01/20 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2020/06/16 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2021/05/27 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 10.1177_0269881120926673 [pii]
AID - 10.1177/0269881120926673 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - J Psychopharmacol. 2021 May;35(5):547-555. doi: 10.1177/0269881120926673. Epub 
      2020 Jun 15.