Correction to Posttraumatic Growth fter MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Gorman, I., Belser, A. B., Jerome, L., Hennigan, C., Shechet, B., Hamilton, S., Yazar-Klosinski, B., Emerson, A., & Feduccia, A. A. (2020). Posttraumatic growth after MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 33(2), 161–170.

Description and explanation for this orrection

During the MP-4 study (CT.gov Identifier NCT01958593), which took place between October 2014 and October 2016, there was an ethical violation resulting in a deviation from the protocol by a pair of participating therapists with one of the participants. The pair treated four of six participants in total in the MP-4 study out of the 60 participants included in the pooled analysis reported in the original manuscript.

Due to the aforementioned ethical violation, data from all four participants treated by this pair of participating therapists have been removed from analysis in this publication correction. The removal of the data does not compromise the conclusions.

Summary of corrections made

In Paragraph 1 of the introductory section, the estimated mean difference between groups changed from “−22.0” to “−23.4,” and the standard error changed from “5.17” to “5.4,” due to removal of four participants from the analyses.

In Paragraph 1 of the Methods section under “Participants,” the following text was added: “During the MP-4 study, there was an ethical violation by a pair of participating therapists that resulted in a deviation from the protocol. Data from all four participants treated by this pair of participating therapists were removed, and all analyses were updated in the current study to reflect this change. Additional details are provided in the Supplementary Materials.”

Table 1 was revised to show the updated demographic and baseline characteristic values (all changed data are highlighted below) due to the removal of four participants from the analyses.

Table 2 was revised to show the updated CAPS-IV and PTGI total scores at the primary endpoint after two blinded sessions (all changed data are highlighted below) due to the removal of four participants from the analyses.

Figure 1, Panel A was revised to show updated PTGI scores at baseline and all endpoints due to the removal of four participants from the analyses.

Figure 1, Panel B was revised to show updated CAPS-IV total scores at baseline and all endpoints due to the removal of four participants from the analyses.

In the Figure 1 legend, the second sentence was revised to reflect the update to “active control” group. It was changed from “The primary endpoint occurred 1 month after the second blinded MDMA/placebo session” to “The primary endpoint occurred 1 month after the second blinded MDMA/active control session.”

Figure 2 was revised to show the updated correlation of change from baseline PTGI total score to change from baseline CAPS-IV total score at the primary endpoint due to the removal of four participants from analyses.

In the “Treatment exit and 12-month follow-up” section within Results, the sample size was updated due to the removal of four participants. The second sentence was changed from: “The results of the MMRM (Table 3) demonstrated that PTSD symptom severity and PTG significantly improved at treatment exit compared to baseline (n = 54) for the CAPS-IV, p < .001, and PTGI, p < .001, with positive gains sustained at the 12-month follow-up.” to “The results of the MMRM (Table 3) demonstrated that PTSD symptom severity and PTG significantly improved at treatment exit compared to baseline (n = 53) for the CAPS-IV, p < .001, and PTGI, p < .001, with positive gains sustained at the 12-month follow-up.”

Table 3 was revised to reflect the updated within-subject CAPS-IV and PTGI total scores at baseline, treatment exit, and 12-month follow-up (all changed data are highlighted below). The significance of these outcomes were unchanged following the removal of the four participants.

In the Discussion section, Paragraph 1, Sentence 5, the description of the control group was changed to “active control group” due to the removal of the four participants as follows: “Second, participants who received the MDMA treatment showed significantly more PTG and improvement in PTSD symptoms than those in the active control group, and this effect was of a large magnitude.”

In the Discussion section, Paragraph 1, Sentence 8, the Hedges’ g values for PTGI and CAPS-IV scores at the primary endpoint were updated due to the removal of the four participants as follows: “After two sessions, active doses of MDMA combined with psychotherapy resulted in decreased PTSD symptom severity and increased PTG with large between-group effect sizes: g = 0.97 for the CAPS-IV and g = 1.26 for the PTGI.”

In the Discussion section, the last paragraph, Sentence 2, the description of the control group was changed to “active control group” due to the removal of the four participants as follows: “At posttreatment assessment, the MDMA group experienced higher levels of PTG and larger reductions in PTSD symptom severity compared to the active control group.”

All study design data reported within Supplemental Table 1 for the MP-4 study were updated to reflect the new sample size from the reanalysis (all changed data are highlighted below).

Supplemental Table 2 was revised to include updated PTGI subscale scores at baseline and all endpoints due to the removal of the four participants (all changed data are highlighted below).

Supplemental Table 3 was revised to include updated CAPS-IV subscale scores at baseline and all endpoints due to the removal of the four participants (all changed data are highlighted below).

We apologize for this error.