One of the most common and least known forms of addiction (to the general public; don’t trust an addiction specialist who hasn’t heard of it) is dual diagnosis, also known as co-morbid and co-occurring disorders, where a patient has both an addiction and a complicating or co-occurring mental disorder, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). When that’s the case, both conditions need to be treated for the patient to get and stay well. An addiction may lead to or cause a mental disorder, and vice versa.

One possible treatment for PTSD that may seem counter-intuitive is methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), also known as Ecstasy or Molly – a psychoactive and addictive drug – but it’s not really that far-fetched. Despite its current classification as a Schedule I drug (which means the federal government considers it to have no safe or legitimate medical uses), long before it was a “party drug,” MDMA was used as a tool in psychotherapy in the 1970s.

Now the Food And Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a clinical study on MDMA for treatment of PTSD by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a nonprofit group. The group’s founder and executive director Rick Doblin said, “For the first time ever, psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy will be evaluated in (advanced) trials for possible prescription use, with MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD leading the way.”

FDA says MDSMA is a “breakthrough therapy,” which means there is clinical evidence of “substantial improvement over existing therapies on one or more clinically significant endpoints, such as substantial treatment effects observed early in clinical development.”

That’s a big deal because other psychoactive drugs on Schedule I, such as cannabis, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and ibogaine have long been suspected or touted as having safe application for the treatment of chronic pain, heroin addiction and alcoholism, but the Schedule I designation has made rigorous scientific research next to impossible.

Now marijuana is being legalized for medical and even recreational use, state by state, but federal dollars are still hard to come by. Even so, marijuana is fairly easy to come by. MDMA, with its rep as a drug for the clubs or raves, didn’t get taken seriously. If Doblin is right, then maybe other psychoactive drugs may be tested for therapeutic substance use disorder treatment, too, such as psilocybin and ayahuasca.

Any psychoactive drug could have negative effects if misused or abused, so they shouldn’t be distributed over-the-counter. Still, they are a promising therapy for addiction and mental health treatment. It’s about time we studied them.