MDMA can turn back the clock on your brain

A recent study with MDMA has shown that the infamous party drug can open up parts of your brain that are most active in predominantly teenage years.  The experiment that was done with mice and published on Nature, explains that with one dose of MDMA, it re-opened an Oxytocin-dependent part of the brain that’s active naturally from the age of 10 – 19 years old. In the publication of the results of the study, they quoted:

“This suggests that we’ve reopened a critical period in mice, giving them the ability to learn social reward behaviours at a time when they are less inclined to engage in these behaviours”

Despite a publicly divided view on the drug, the study concludes that it’s becoming more and more scientifically proven that MDMA can be helpful in treating long term depression, schizophrenia, severe anxiety and any disorders that respond to social influence or are the result of social injury.

I wonder if in 10 years time whether we’ll be looking back at MDMA asking why we didn’t use it for this purpose sooner!