MDMA (a Component of Ecstacy) Potential for the Treatment of Tinnitus

A new idea:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/9806851/Party-drug-link-to-tinnitus-cure

 

Fat chance anything will come of it. Whenever they find a treatment linked to an illegal substance, you never hear from it again.

Besides, the government shills at the FDA will make short work of it.

 

The benefit will be more psychosomatic and emotional ... because you will be able to have an encreased empathy for your own situation. Still not the desired discovery us T people are hoping for. After taking mdma your serotonin levels are down so you get a hit of temporary depression so that might reverse the whole empathy discovery. Some insights are life lessons, but the expereince does fade after a day. mdma lasts only 3-5 hours.

 

ok, so MDMA seems to be bad idea :-(

 

I can definitely see how MDMA could possibly help with habituation. Funnily enough, whenever I have done MDMA since getting tinnitus, I get a reduction in my tinnitus volume for a good couple weeks, not sure why though. The reduction is definitely temporary so it's nothing to get too excited about, but it is still interesting.

I hope they do decide to explore this more in-depth, because I have very little doubt that MDMA could be an effective treatment modality if it used along side some form of additional therapy or counselling. They are already exploring this with conditions like PTSD (the mechanisms behind PTSD and tinnitus are similar) with significant results.

 

MDMA use in my past certainly didn't prevent me from getting tinnitus in the future.

 

I've found T decreases significantly during use and the effects last for a few days.

 

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/party-drug-link-tinnitus-cure-5860934

 

Ketamine is a controlled substance and AM-101 is basically a stronger version of the drug.

If a drug can be shown to have useful effects while minimizing side effects (either through dosing or through finding a chemical derivative that still has the desired effect) it can easily sail through an FDA trial.

Opiate pain medications are based on the same basic chemical that you use to make diamorphine, or heroin. That hasn't stopped their use.

 

It has been used in a select few experiments for psychological conditions, but only a tiny few.

Because of the way it makes you feel it let's you connect with emotions that you may not be able to express, which is why it's good for conditions where you are emotionally separated.

It's a psychiatry dream drug. Months of therapy to get to the root cause of a problem can be replaced with a few sessions.

Edit: but they would lose a fortune in fees so probably not likely to be accepted by the mainstream very easily.

So I would reckon that it's the emotional connection and state of mind that make T reduce when taking MDMA, couldn't imagine anything permanent coming from it.

 

Although thinking about it again, if it helps to reduce the emotional connection and helps us to stop treating T as a negative and unwanted sound, then it could accelerate CBT style treatments.

 

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/9806851/Party-drug-link-to-tinnitus-cure

 

A couple of drug users (most likely with very mild tinnitus) said their tinnitus went away and now they think they have a cure. lol. People with severe tinnitus would never consider taking an illegal drug to get high.

 

True, healthy dose of sceptism is needed with this one. On a related topic, LSD is now being researched again for medical uses...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/06/lsd-anxiety-study-psychotherapy-_n_4906596.html

 

"QUALITATIVE COMMENTS: (with 200 mg) It was taken twice at different times in a dosage of 200 milligrams each time, without the slightest peripheral or central effects.

(with 300 mg) My tinnitus had disappeared. Probably nothing. "

http://www.erowid.org/library/books_online/pihkal/pihkal115.shtml

http://www.dancesafe.org/OldEbooth/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=187167

The above quote by Alexander Shulgin (discoverer of MDMA and T sufferer) refers to a drug related to MDMA.

I'm no scientist, but I don't think we should discount something simply because it is illegal.

 

Ecstacy being so common there must be enough anecdotal evidence out there - though maybe it's more common amongst people who are young and tinnitus is more prevalent in a more mature (!) population so that might limit the numbers who have/tried T and mdma.

I've never tried it, must admit I wouldn't fancy taking a hallucinogenic like lsd these days.

 

Marijuana as a mood elevator is probably a better use of your time and money.

 

The problem is that on the street you will virtually never get pure MDMA. It will be adulterated with any number of different things that can have different effects, so it's never going to be very reliable what is causing any particular effect.

 

http://www.mixmag.net/words/news/mdma-could-cure-tinnitus

 

They seem to think it could???

 

Yeah thats what i figured but still cool

 

http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/131928-Tinnitus-and-MDMA

Many positive stories here. No permanent cures, but a lot of people saying they get many days with lower T.

 

Local NMDA Receptor Blockade Attenuates Chronic Tinnitus and Associated Brain Activity in an Animal Model

• Thomas J. Brozoski mail,
  * E-mail: tbrozoski@siumed.edu
  Affiliation: Division of Otolaryngology, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, Illinois, United States of America
  X
• Kurt W. Wisner,
  Affiliation: Division of Otolaryngology, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, Illinois, United States of America
  X
• Boris Odintsov,
  Affiliation: Biomedical Imaging Center, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States of America
  X
• Carol A. Bauer
  Affiliation: Division of Otolaryngology, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, Illinois, United States of America
  X

• Published: October 21, 2013
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0077674

Abstract
Chronic tinnitus has no broadly effective treatment. Identification of specific markers for tinnitus should facilitate the development of effective therapeutics. Recently it was shown that glutamatergic blockade in the cerebellar paraflocculus, using an antagonist cocktail was successful in reducing chronic tinnitus. The present experiment examined the effect of selective N-methyl d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor blockade on tinnitus and associated spontaneous brain activity in a rat model. The NMDA antagonist, D(−)-2-amino-5-phosphonopentanoic acid (D-AP5) (0.5 mM), was continuously infused for 2 weeks directly to the ipsilateral paraflocculus of rats with tinnitus induced months prior by unilateral noise exposure. Treated rats were compared to untreated normal controls without tinnitus, and to untreated positive controls with tinnitus. D-AP5 significantly decreased tinnitus within three days of beginning treatment, and continued to significantly reduce tinnitus throughout the course of treatment and for 23 days thereafter, at which time testing was halted. At the conclusion of psychophysical testing, neural activity was assessed using manganese enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MEMRI). In agreement with previous research, untreated animals with chronic tinnitus showed significantly elevated bilateral activity in their paraflocculus and brainstem cochlear nuclei, but not in mid or forebrain structures. In contrast, D-AP5-treated-tinnitus animals showed significantly less bilateral parafloccular and dorsal cochlear nucleus activity, as well as significantly less contralateral ventral cochlear nucleus activity. It was concluded that NMDA-mediated glutamatergic transmission in the paraflocculus appears to be a necessary component of chronic noise-induced tinnitus in a rat model. Additionally, it was confirmed that in this model, elevated spontaneous activity in the cerebellar paraflocculus and auditory brainstem is associated with tinnitus.


http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0077674

 

That's intriguing. If only he would join here so we could ask him about it.

May be a complete longshot, but I sent a quick mail to the Facebook page his wife Ann has up. He's not in great health so they are fundraising for him, still the message may get through. I'll update if I get a reply.

 

I think it should be noted that the study @stelar is referring to was based on NMDA treatment of tinnitus, which is a very different mode of action from MDMA.

 

Good point, @Hudson.

MDMA is XTC. NMDA, on the other hand, is (accoriding to Wiki) "an amino acid derivative that acts as a specific agonist at the NMDA receptor."

According to attached survey paper, various NMDA antagonists (including AM-101, Neramexane, and Memantine) are being examined as possible treatments for tinnitus. I should note as well that Ketamine, which has been discussed recently on TT, is also an NMDA antagonist.

-Golly

 

Wow very interesting! I would personally imagine the drug would have the opposite effect, being that you would be more attentive to your tinnitus. I feel like alcohol might (while being consumed) reduce the perception of tinnitus due to its effects but the next morning your tinnitus may be much worse because of the cumulative effects of the hangover.

 

I might try this, have never done this type of drug, only weed so far.

I will report back.