Chapters/Authors list

Sample chapters:

• Ralph Metzner, PhD: Using MDMA in Healing, Psychotherapy and Spiritual Practice
• Douglas Rushkoff: E: Prescription for Cultural Renaissance
• Karl Jansen, MD: Mental Health Problems Associated with MDMA Use
  
Julie Holland, MD: Using MDMA in the Treatment of Schizophrenia  

About This Book

In the Summer of 1985, I was a college Sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. I was studying the Biological Basis of Behavior, a combination of biology, psychology and neuroscience. I was spending that Summer on campus, taking some extra pre-med courses when I read several magazine articles that caught my attention. There was a new drug receiving a lot of media attention. There were pictures of people in bars, dancing on tables, and other pictures of people lying down wearing eyeshades in doctor's offices. The government was in the process of making this new drug illegal, and the physicians were fighting the government's action. At Penn, my concentration within my major was psychopharmacology, the interaction of drugs and behavior, so you can imagine that I was quite intrigued by the allure of any "new drug," let alone one they were calling "Ecstasy." But here was a drug being used by psychologists and psychiatrists to augment the psychotherapy experience. These practitioners had discovered a medicine that helped catalyze the therapeutic process, that solidified the therapeutic alliance and helped to create "breakthrough sessions." That Summer, I wrote a forty page research paper about MDMA, and I spent a good deal of time on the phone with various players in the Ecstasy debate.
Over the past sixteen years, I have stayed in touch with many of these psychiatrists, chemists, researchers, and "psychedelic cheerleaders." I have also stayed tuned into the evolving MDMA story, and was often aggravated by the misinformation being propagated repeatedly about this complex molecule. In the Spring of 1998, it occurred to me that I could create a book if each of them simply wrote about their own area of expertise. I assigned everyone a chapter, and assumed I would write one or two as well. After two years, I had to help some of the busier people along and ended up conducting and transcribing interviews so that everyone's piece of the puzzle could be represented.  Ecstasy: The Complete Guide is a book which gathers the opinions of twenty two world experts on Ecstasy (MDMA). David Nichols, the chemist who makes pharmaceutical grade MDMA for human studies, has authored the chapter on the chemistry of MDMA. The doctor who first alerted the world to the dangers of overheating at raves, John Henry, has co-authored the chapter on the medical risks associated with MDMA use. Also, there are interviews with psychiatrist George Greer, who has given MDMA to over eighty  therapy patients, the UCLA researcher Charles Grob who has given MDMA to human subjects, and Emanuel Sferios, the founder of DanceSafe, the controversial group that offers risk reduction information and tests Ecstasy pills at raves. Other interviews include a well known rabbi, Zalman Schacter, who speaks of its spiritual effects; Rick Doblin, a man who is navigating the political waters to see that it becomes a prescription medicine; and the Godparents of MDMA, Sasha and Ann Shulgin.
Initially, I wanted to focus on the potential therapeutic effects of MDMA. Ecstasy: The Complete Guide  has sections on MDMA-assisted psychotherapy and on the potential clinical uses of MDMA. As a psychiatrist, I am eager for this powerful tool to be explored and exploited in the name of good therapy. Medically supervised single-dose MDMA sessions may be useful in a variety of patient populations, ranging from post traumatic stress disorder and depression to chronic pain and terminal illness. But as a physician, I also feel obligated to address the potential dangers of unsupervised recreational use. Millions of people are using Ecstasy in this way and need to be educated about the potential consequences of their behavior. I believe that the harm reduction model is the most appropriate template when attempting to reach this population. The medical, psychiatric, and legal risks of Ecstasy use are all fully explored in this book.
The final section of the book is a review of all clinical MDMA research currently underway around the world. I believe it is crucial that MDMA be fully explored and understood, that both its risks and benefits be studied in good, double blind, clinical research. I am especially dedicated to promoting human studies of the potential therapeutic applications of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. To that end, all proceeds from the sale of  Ecstasy: The Complete Guide will be donated to the Holland Fund for Therapeutic MDMA Research. Your tax-deductible donations to this fund will be genuinely appreciated by those scientists and clinicians who will likely never be funded by our government. Thank you.
 

Additional Chapters:

Rick Ingrasci, MD: Clinical Experience with MDMA (Interview)
Juraj Styk, MD: MDMA-Therapy in Switzerland
Nina Borgoche: Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect: Can Raving Save the Planet?
James O'Callaghan, PhD: Defining Neurotoxicity: Lessons From MDMA And Other Amphetamines