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An Open Label Study to Treat Post-Traumatic Stress in Frontline Healthcare Workers Using MDMA-Assisted Therapy

The COVID-19 Pandemic

Healthcare workers were traumatized by the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. 

In the Spring of 2020, we were all witness to the heroic efforts of our medical workers as they showed up to work, day after day, at grave risk to themselves and their families. As an unprecedented flood of patients suffering from a deadly and previously unknown illness crashed through the doors of emergency departments and intensive care units across the city, these workers discovered that the hospital infrastructures they had relied on for their entire careers were insufficient to mount an adequate response. For many, personal protective equipment shortages made the prospect of going to work feel much more dangerous than before. Ventilator shortages forced some to decide, on a daily basis for months on end, which suffocating patient would receive the life-saving benefit of mechanical breath, and which would have to be denied. Colleagues fell sick; some died; many returned to work before they were fully recovered - often because it was intolerable for them to imagine their co-workers facing the crisis without them. 

For doctors and nurses, the patient care they provided no longer included 1:1 attention and human touch. With no family members present to provide company and support to those who were sick and dying, it fell on healthcare workers to bear witness to excessive amounts of suffering and death, often helplessly and at a distance. Their experiences are heart wrenching:

"I watched my patient suffocate through the window. We accused ourselves, while admitting it was true. … In the minutes it took to put our PPE on, we had watched our patients die.  In a quiet side reaction, we felt the good things leave our body, and grief come to stay. … We leaned forward and bowed our heads in order to redirect the flow of tears. We couldn’t risk touching our faces and we needed them to fall onto our scrubs. We couldn’t ruin our masks."

The horrors of the pandemic, and its aftermath, have highlighted the critical need to focus on the mental health of medical workers involved in the response to this emergency. Studies over the past decade have consistently found that this population of workers were already experiencing some of the highest rates of burn-out, PTSD, and suicide of any profession anywhere. The United Nations noted the impact of the pandemic on healthcare workers in its May 2020 Policy Brief, calling attention to the “historic underinvestment in mental health” that needs to be “redressed without delay to reduce immense suffering …and mitigate long-term social and economic costs to society.”

MDMA-assisted therapy for Frontline Healthcare Workers

Nautilus Sanctuary is one of only a handful of organizations in the world capable of executing a psychedelic clinical trial of this kind. We have the proven experience, passion, and expertise to train and support clinicians and study staff to conduct this important work. While information about Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy (PAT) has primarily focused on the substances themselves, there is a significant lack of data regarding the critical role of psychotherapeutic support in ensuring that these treatments are safe, effective, and lasting. This lack of data likely influenced the FDA's decision not to legalize MDMA-Assisted Therapy at this time, which is why this study is so essential.

This new study has several important goals. We aim to:

• Gather additional data on the clinical risks and benefits of MDMA-assisted therapy (MDMA-AT) for healthcare workers in need of this treatment.

• Identify the therapist skills and behaviors that are most effective in supporting participants during both drug and non-drug sessions.

• Understand the factors that potentially facilitate or complicate the treatment, such as the level of social support, prior history of trauma, and the style, training, and personality of the therapist.

• Train and supervise new therapists learning the inner-directed model paired with the drug.

• Create a video database to train the next generation of psychedelic therapists.

Project Budget

The cost to conduct this project over two years is approximately $1,000,000. This will allow us to bring this treatment free of charge to 30 COVID-affected frontline NYC healthcare workers and train therapists how to work with MDMA using the inner-directed approach.

Our FDA-approved study protocol and a more detailed budget is available for viewing upon request. 

Contact:

Willa Hall, Ph.D. 

willa@nautilussanctuary.org

917-509-1497

or

Casey Paleos, MD

casey@nautilussanctuary.org

631-637-1953