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Act 2

In 1912, Merck Pharmaceuticals was searching for a blood clotting agent to compete with a competitor in the market. One of the agents, a chemical by-product (and not even named) was produced and patented without any significant testing. This was a drug that we would come to know as MDMA or Ecstasy.

In the 1960s, this drug found it’s way into use by a Chilean psychiatrist for psychotherapy, Dr Claudio Naranjo. He found that it helped patients to open up, it intensified emotions, gave access to suppressed memories, and provided insights.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the recreational use of MDMA became prevalent but also became a focus in the war on drugs with both political and scientific powers advocating strongly against its use. Today, the experimental studies confirm that MDMA is very useful in a controlled medical setting for the use of patients suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Our special guest is Dr Stephen Bright who is a clinically-trained psychologist, senior lecturer at Edith Cowan University, researcher into psychedelic science and co-founder of Psychedelic Research in Science & Medicine (PRISM), an Australian non-profit research association that supports formal research into psychedelics such as primarily MDMA.

There is additional information for GPs about MDMA posted.

This is the story of Ecstasy.

In 1912, Merck Pharmaceuticals was searching for a blood clotting agent to compete with a competitor in the market. One of the agents, a chemical by-product (and not even named) was produced and patented without any significant testing. This was a drug that we would come to know as MDMA or Ecstasy.
In the 1960s, this drug found it’s way into use by a Chilean psychiatrist for psychotherapy, Dr Claudio Naranjo. He found that it helped patients to open up, it intensified emotions, gave access to suppressed memories, and provided insights.
In the 1970s and 1980s, the recreational use of MDMA became prevalent but also became a focus in the war on drugs with both political and scientific powers advocating strongly against its use. Today, the experimental studies confirm that MDMA is very useful in a controlled medical setting for the use of patients suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Our special guest is Dr Stephen Bright who is a clinically-trained psychologist, senior lecturer at Edith Cowan University, researcher into psychedelic science and co-founder of Psychedelic Research in Science &amp; Medicine (PRISM), an Australian non-profit research association that supports formal research into psychedelics such as primarily MDMA.
There is additional information for GPs about MDMA posted.
This is the story of Ecstasy.

Welcome to the This Medical Life podcast. Our mission is to share stories about the triumphs and tragedies of diseases and illnesses from ancient times up until what we know today. It is about those scientific and medical minds who came before us and how, every single day, we stand on the shoulders of giants. This is a podcast about the stories of medicine.


Hosted by Dr. Travis Brown and Steve Davis, our target audience is General Practitioners, medical students, and other health professionals. We hope to educate, inspire and celebrate those who choose to care for others in their profession. From experience, we know that our audience extends beyond these fields and would like to welcome anyone to listen. The stories of those who came before us are nothing short of remarkable and we hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

Production by Tim Whiffen

Design by Tom Buzz

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