AGENCY OK'S TESTS OF ECSTASY USE IN STRESS DISORDER

WASHINGTON -- Researchers have gained government approval to test the drug
Ecstasy as a treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder for the first time
since the drug was criminalized in 1985.

The decision was made this week by the Food and Drug Administration and
marks a shift for the agency, which has virtually banned the drug from
researchers for more than a decade.

The trial has not yet been approved by a review board at the Medical
University of South Carolina, the proposed site for the research. The test
would be supervised by the husband and wife team of Dr. Michael Mithoefer,
a psychiatrist, and Annie Mithoefer, a psychiatric nurse in Charleston.If
the study proceeds, 12 people will be given Ecstasy, also known as MDMA, as
they go through therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder. Eight people
will be given a placebo. Each will have therapy without drugs.

Post-traumatic stress disorder, a mental problem for millions of Americans,
is caused by a fixation with an emotionally charged event.