Psychedelic Research

José Carlos Bouso and colleagues have published a paper in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs on his aborted study of MDMA as an adjunct to psychotherapy for treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in women.
Unfortunately, the paper describes results in only a few people. After the first six participants had been run, the study was halted in 2002 when the hospital in which the study was occurring withdrew their support, reportedly due to political pressures. (backstory here) Given this, the paper (which I have yet to obtain and read) cannot provide much evidence for or against the efficacy of MDMA. Still, I believe the authors have the distinction of publishing the first paper to describe the effects of MDMA in a diagnosed patient population.

JC Bouso, R Doblin, M Farré, MA Alcázar, G Gómez-Jarabo
MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy Using Low Doses in a Small Sample of Women with Chronic Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Journal of Pychoactive Drugs 40(3) September 2008

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the safety of different doses of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy administered in a psychotherapeutic setting to women with chronic PTSD secondary to a sexual assault, and also to obtain preliminary data regarding efficacy. Although this study was originally planned to include 29 subjects, political pressures led to the closing of the study before it could be finished, at which time only six subjects had been treated. Preliminary results from those six subjects are presented [in the article]. We found that low doses of MDMA (between 50 and 75 mg) were both psychologically and physiologically safe for all the subjects. Future studies in larger samples and using larger doses are needed in order to further clarify the safety and efficacy of MDMA in the clinical setting in subjects with PTSD.