The MDMA Magic

Can we prevent the loss of MDMA's effects over time?

Published June 14 2017. These results are from the MDMA magic survey conducted recently. A big thank you to the Drugs and MDMA subreddits for participating in this survey - these were the primary/sole source of respondents.

Learn the answers to: what things correlate with keeping more of the MDMA magic over time/less tolerance?

The full results spreadsheet is linked below. Correlation tables and some takeaways are also included.

The sample size was about 660. P values are included for correlations below, and all non-statistically significant values (p >= 0.05) have been excluded from this page. P-values take into account the sample size to indicate how statistically significant the correlation is. The larger the effect size, the smaller the sample size needed to show a statistically significant results.

Some of the takeaways I found interesting

Note: Most statistically significant correlations weren’t large correlations, they tended to be small or moderate.

These are correlational results, not necessarily causational!

These things correlate with losing less MDMA magic, or not needing higher dosages

This is not ‘doing X once correlates with a more magical roll’ - this is ‘doing X correlates with keeping more of the MDMA magic over time.’

• Having a healthy lifestyle and mental health had statistically significant correlations (in the desirable direction) for most outcomes.
• Taking supplements before, during, and in the few hours after had statistically significant correlations with keeping the euphoria, connection with everything, and not needing to take a higher dosage. But not with keeping the empathy, love, or increases in paranoia and boredom.
  • However, taking supplements in the days after an MDMA session didn’t have a statistically significant correlation with any outcomes! (I found it particularly interesting that supplements like ALA before/during MDMA seem to correlate positively, while supplements like 5-HTP don’t seem to have any correlation.)
• The total number of supplements taken before/during and in the few hours after had a significant correlation with not needing a higher dosage, keeping the euphoria, and keeping the energy/stimulation.
• More sleep had a significant correlation with not needing a higher dosage, and with ‘connection with everything’.

It’s possible that all of these correlations are due to confounding factors. For example, people that take supplements are more likely to have a healthier lifestyle, and the positive correlation may be due to the lifestyle, not the supplements.

These things correlatate with losing more MDMA magic, or needing higher dosages

All of the following were statistically significant.

Roughly ordered with most negative at the top.

• The strongest negative correlations were: highest number of tablets in one session, highest number of capsules in one session, average number of capsules in one session, highest crystal dose in mg, highest tablet dose where the weight of the tablets was known. Yes, this isn’t causation and there are confounding factors. However, it’s still very interesting.
• Sessions per year. Pretty strong negative correlations with everything. Good evidence for MDMA breaks.
• Average number of booster doses.
• Total number of MDMA sessions.
• Being in a hot environment while using MDMA.
• Combining MDMA with other drugs.

I don’t have any kind of statistical significance measure for this graph currently, but thought it was interesting to include.

Again, I don’t have a statistical significance measure for this, but more than 6 sessions per year in particular seems to correlate with an increase in magic loss.

Extra data

• See the full spreadsheet here. Feel free to send any comments to rollsafeorg@gmail.com. Also feel free to design new analyses, and send them our way. I’m particularly interested in figuring out an MDMA break length recommendation based on the correlation between sessions/yr and magic loss outcomes, or in verifications of all of my calculations. If you’re good at teasing apart confounding variables to work out which variables are more likely to be causative and not just correlative with the true causal variables, I and others would definitely appreciate if you did an analysis of that type on this data.
• All of the results are licenced Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. So feel free to create an analysis of your own and share it publicly, with attribution.
• See the correlation tables below.

Correlations of variable vs increase/decrease in positive or negative effects of 2nd/3rd/4th rolls vs most recent 3-4 rolls

Asterisks indicate significance level (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001; ****p < 0.0001); ns = not significant.

Positive scores are good! These correlate with reduced magic loss, or reduced side-effects.

Negative scores are bad. These correlate with increased magic loss, or increased side-effects.

Rule of Thumb for Interpreting the Size of a Correlation Coefficient¹

The work on this analysis and writeup was primarily done during a ~3 hour period on the night of June 13 2017. Some survey responses continued to come in after the analysis was begun, due to my error in not closing the form when I begun analysis. At some point in the future when responses completely stop coming in I may go and do the analysis again and re-write this post if there’s a considerable number of additional responses.

Needing a higher dosage

Empathy

Euphoria

Connection with everything

Energy/stimulation

Love

Paranoia

Boredom

Magic loss composite

Side effect worsening

Notes

• How much of certain correlations can be explained by other correlations?
• Question for next time: shortest wait time (in days) between MDMA sessions.
• Thank you to KK, NM, Borax, JY, and the /r/Drugs and /r/MDMA communities.

References