http://www.maps.org/sys/nq.pl?id=1580&fmt=page trippy...

MDMA has quite a lot of potential therapeutic applications, although people tend to get too excited about attention-grabbing headlines. MDMA in PTSD treatment is a tool which can be used to temporarily alter the mindset of a PTSD patient (including flashbacks, negative automatic thoughts (NATs, constant self-perpetuating negative thoughts basically), severe depression. etc). In the care of a trained psychologist, forms of therapy such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT, which in a nutshell attempt to help patients unlearn negative thought patterns and relearn positive patterns) can be greatly facilitated by the 'happy' effects of MDMA. It can be extraordinarily difficult even getting a PTSD patient to understand (let alone accept) positive thought patterns regarding their trauma during normal treatment. Standard SSRI/tricyclic antidepressants don't act in anything like the same way as MDMA and thus aren't particularly useful; they're more there to prevent depressive crashes than to significantly elevate mood.

It's valuable in the correct hands. It's not a cure, or anything like it. Someone suffering from PTSD or a depressive mood disorder could have their condition significantly worsened by taking MDMA themselves.