The journal *Psychopharmacology* has retracted three papers on MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD, all based on Lykos Therapeutics trial data. The stated reasons: failure to disclose competing interests and unethical conduct at a Canadian study site where a therapist was accused of sexually assaulting a patient.
The therapist in question, Richard Yensen, and the patient he abused, Meaghan Buisson, were the subject of extensive reporting by [Double Blind](https://doubleblindmag.com/psychopharmacology-retracts-lykos-mdma-papers/) and other outlets. MAPS acknowledged the incident in 2019 and reported it to the FDA and Canadian health authorities. The FDA Advisory Committee that voted against MDMA therapy approval in June 2024 was aware of it.
What is new is the retraction itself. Independent journalist Sasha Sisko submitted a formal retraction request to *Psychopharmacology*'s editors in 2023, arguing the papers failed to disclose the authors' financial and institutional ties to MAPS, which funded the trials and supplied the MDMA. Three years later, the journal agreed.
Lykos disputes the decision. The company said the disclosure failures should have been addressed through corrections rather than retractions, and that it disagreed with the journal's characterization of the conduct. That's a defensible position on the narrow question of remedy. It doesn't address the underlying facts.
## What this means
The retractions don't change the underlying trial data — the results are what they are. What they do is remove three peer-reviewed papers from the literature that had been cited in support of MDMA therapy's evidence base.
Lykos is currently working out what a new Phase 3 trial design looks like following the FDA's August 2024 Complete Response Letter. The company needs to convince the FDA that the data integrity and ethical oversight problems that plagued the original program have been resolved. Three retracted papers don't help that argument.
The broader question — whether MDMA-assisted therapy works — remains open. The retracted papers were not the only evidence. But the field's credibility problem got worse today.