Vice season 6, episode 26 recap: A Living Hell and MDMA for PTSD

On the latest episode of Vice, the show took a look at the situation in Yemen and a new potential treatment for PTSD.

The first story was a look at the escalating humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

The country has become a battleground as a Saudi-led intervention fought to push back against the insurgent group known as the Houthis who are fighting the government.

As a result, this had led to a bloody civil war and the country’s current instability forced people from their homes and caused them to stay in hastily assembled camps.

The camps have nothing in the way of proper sanitation and because of this diseases like cholera are breaking out. But on a larger scale, the country is absolutely ravaged as a result of the war, with starvation and mass casualties being extremely common amongst the area’s civilians.

Additionally, child soldiers are being used in combat and some have been fighting since they were 11 years old.

Vice’s other story was a look at how MDMA, the ingredient in the recreational drug ecstasy, may be a potential solution for treating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). MDMA is a psychedelic drug that is being used in connection with cognitive therapy in order to treat the disease and the results are quite encouraging.

Because of the massive amount of veterans and other people with PTSD, the therapy has gotten more attention until the idea has gotten some mainstream acceptance.

MDMA may be so effective in treating PTSD because its unique psychedelic properties enhance the brain’s ability to recover from traumatic experiences.

While the clinical trials are approved in the US, the drug MDMA itself is still illegal so the actual treatment is only available elsewhere.

Vice airs every Friday night on HBO.