Empathy Articles By Topic > Ecstasy (MDMA) and Empathy Studies

2010-12-15 - Alphagalileo.org: MDMA: Empathogen or Love Potion?
MDMA or ‘ecstasy’ increases feelings of empathy and social connection. These ‘empathogenic’ effects suggest that MDMA might be useful to enhance the psychotherapy of people who struggle to feel connected to others, as may occur in association with autism, schizophrenia, or antisocial personality disorder.  However, these effects have been difficult to measure objectively, and there has been limited research in humans. Now, University of Chicago researchers, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, are reporting their new findings in healthy volunteers in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry.

2010-12-21 - Could Ecstasy Be a Useful Therapy in Autism?
MDMA may also “distort one’s perception of others rather than producing true empathy,” warns Dr. John Krystal, Editor of Biological Psychiatry where the study was published. “Thus, MDMA may cause problems if it leads to people to misinterpret the emotional state and perhaps the intentions of others.”