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I enjoyed our topic of discussion on Tuesday- Illicit drugs & their therapeutic potential.  I think our discussion raised many interesting and controversial issues.  Despite the recent evidence (studies we read about) supporting illicit drugs for therapy, I am still a little skeptical.

First, during the presentations, I remember Liz talking about the 'crashing' following using the drug- for example, Ecstasy users who use the drug on the weekends, experience "suicidal Tuesdays" and bad, serious "mid-week blues."   These effects occur days after taking the drug- so, when considering using these drugs for therapy, I think it is very important that we consider the effects the drug may have after being ingested, even a week later- not just the effects for the 8 hour therapy session where the drug's main effect is being experienced by the patient and supervised by a therapist- but what about a few days later when the patient is not with the therapist and is feeling these "suicidal Tuesdays"??  I think this could pose many problems especially for patients with PTSD and other disorders who may even have more intense feelings of "suicidal Tuesdays" and "mid-week blues" than the normal, healthy recreational Ecstasy user.  I think we need to think about the crashing or coming off of these drugs when we are considering them for potential treatments.  Would the effects during the eight hours of the therapy & drug session outweigh these after-effects of the drugs like "suicidal Tuesdays"?  I'm not too sure myself, but I think we must consider these things when investigating these drugs for therapeutic use. 

The potential harmful effects of these drugs need to also be investigated before we begin to use them- might these drugs have long-term effects on memory?  I think we need to do more studies investigating the effects of these drugs on the brain- and this most likely means using fMRI methods- which can be helpful, however, some of the smaller more micro changes occurring in the brain cannot be seen using brain imaging, so maybe in the future we will have better ways of investigating the effects of these drugs on the brain, cognition, and behavior.   Maybe the changes or damages these drugs are inflicting on the brain are too small for us to "see" right now with our current technology- I am still skeptical that using these drugs does not have any harmful or long-lasting side effects on your body or brain. 

Also, some people for example with the congenital heart defects have very bad reactions to some of these drugs, even death- so I think if we decide to use these drugs for therapeutic purposes a list of "exclusionary" criteria need to exist so people with these defects who may easily be harmed by the drug are excluded from taking it.