New Zealand approves use of MDMA for severe PTSD

New Zealand has approved MDMA for treating severe PTSD, becoming the second country after Australia to permit its use for the condition.

The approval was granted by New Zealand’s pharmaceutical regulator, Medsafe, and follows Australia’s 2023 decision to approve psychedelics for PTSD and treatment-resistant depression.

Two psychiatrists have been authorised to prescribe pharmaceutical-grade MDMA to people with severe PTSD.

Deputy prime minister David Seymour, who last year backed the approval of magic mushrooms to treat people with severe depression, said: “PTSD ruins lives and is difficult to treat. MDMA can be very effective at treating it through psychedelic-assisted therapy.”

He said New Zealand was committed to opening up access to “innovative treatments”.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental health condition that develops after a person experiences or is threatened by traumatic events such as death, combat or sexual assault.

Clinical trials are taking place in the US after the Food and Drug Administration rejected the medicinal use of MDMA in 2024, saying there was not enough evidence that it was safe or effective.

Pharmaceutical treatment options for PTSD in the US have so far been limited to two antidepressants that require three months of dosing to take effect. Response rates to the medications have been uneven.

A study in Israel last year found that MDMA taken by partygoers at the Nova music festival, where hundreds were killed by Hamas in the 7 October attacks, had been helpful in cushioning the impact of the trauma they endured.

New Zealand’s Ministry of Health said MDMA-assisted treatment would be combined with psychotherapy and stressed that patients would not be supplied with drugs to take home.

“Treatment takes place in a controlled clinical setting under the care of an authorised psychiatrist and forms part of a comprehensive treatment plan,” the ministry said.

Patients must also be aged 18 or older.