The artillery of the fighting in Loop It sounds in the distance while Shye Klein-Weinstein walks slowly through the memorial reminiscent of the nearly 400 people killed at the Nova festival, in southern Israel, on October 7, 2023.
The 28 -year -old, who survived Hamas’s attackremember how events developed that day.
In some of the shots, the last minutes of life of young people who attended the party are recorded.
Klein-Weinstein, who arrived in Israel from Canada four months before the attack, recalls a festival detail: that day consumed ecstasy.
Although it is very shocked, the preliminary analyzes of a study by the University of Haifa, in Israel, suggest that the MDMA (ecstasy) that some people consumed in the hours before the assault may be acted as trauma damping.
“I went to Nova with my cousin and several friends (…) It was my first music festival,” says Klein-Weinstein, who remembers that each one took half or a pill.
New findings
The University of Haifa He monitored 657 NOVA survivors, both people who consumed drugs and assistants who did not.
The preliminary results of the study show that people under the effects of the MDMA showed “Intermediate results significantly improves compared to those under the effects of other substances “, or had not consumed any drugs.
The study, which was Recently accepted for publication in World Psychiatry magazineshowed that the group that consumed MDMA reported more social interactions and a better quality of sleep after the event and this “reduced the levels of anguish” and the severity of the symptoms of post -traumatic stress.
“These findings are unique, it is something that had never been reported, because had never been studiedbecause it is something that had never happened, “says Roee Admon, one of the researchers who led the study.
Admon explains that trauma studies are very consolidated, but that the attack in the Nova festival opened a new vein.
“We did not know anything about how trauma develops when during an attack or a traumatic event, the person is under the influence of substances such as cannabis, alcohol or psychedelic drugs such as LSD and MDMA,” says the expert who points out that a massive event, where 4,000 people are exposed at the same time, is also unusual.
Admon affirms that he would like to think that if something dramatic happened to him, he would like to be “in control”, free from the influence of any substance.
But the findings go against this premise. “It’s very surprising,” he says.
The researcher clarifies that although The MDMA gave the survivors support The Nova Festival, the effects of posttraumatic stress disorder remain extremely high.
Admon also pointed out that the study is limited by the “survivor bias”, which excludes those killed in the attack.
“The drug of love”
In the Nova Memorial, Klein-Weinstein recounts that still fights with trauma And still in therapy. However, he believes that having consumed MDMA may have softened symptoms.
But he clarifies that he does not want people to think that the MDMA saved them or “protected them.”
“I don’t know anyone who did not die because MDMA took. They were equally vulnerable as the rest, everyone was in the same situation,” he emphasizes.
The survivor points out that ecstasy is known as “The drug of love” And he states that “it makes you want to hug his friends, dance and laugh and smile.”
“When everything happened, I noticed that I was not afraid for me,” he recalls.
“My only concern was not being able to help my friends or something happened to them, and that I was totally useless, unable to do something, that was a horrendous feeling, of lack of control,” he says.
Vered Atzmon -mehulam, a trauma-specialist psychologist and director of the Israeli Oenegé Division specialized in attention after disasters Zaka, declares AFP that the study is not surprised, because several previous investigations indicated that the MDMA can Help treat posttraumatic stress syndrome.
“We have to advance to the next phase, which includes treatments that use psychedelic substances To really relieve and generalized, not only to people who were in Nova, but many others who suffer post -traumatic stress, “he says.
