Subject: Link Between Ecstasy and Memory Loss
Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 21:48:24 -0700 (PDT)
From: calcru@mindspring.com
To: calcru@mindspring.com

From: x

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Link Between Ecstasy and Memory Loss
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>From Reuters

October 15 2001

CHICAGO -- The popular club drug Ecstasy causes temporary injury to brain
cells, but the result is long-term damage to memory, Dutch researchers said
Sunday.

Memory tests and brain scans performed on 22 subjects who had recently used
Ecstasy revealed they suffered memory deficiencies and changes in certain
brain cells.

The scans showed the damage was most pronounced on cortical neurons linked
to memory function. In Ecstasy users, those brain cells had a decreased
density of receptors for the neurotransmitter serotonin, which transports
messages between cells and is known to affect mood. Previous research has
suggested that Ecstasy causes a flood of serotonin in the brain, followed by
a drop-off when the drug wears off.

Brain scans performed on 16 former Ecstasy users who had abstained from the
drug for at least a year did not show lasting damage to the serotonin
receptors in cortical neurons.

But former users did not perform as well on memory tests as 13 control
subjects who had never used the drug. While the neurons of former users
seemed to recover, the consequences on memory from the earlier Ecstasy use
may be irreversible, said study author Liesbeth Reneman of the Academic
Medical Center in Amsterdam.

The longer that Ecstasy was used and the higher the dosages, the worse the
memory impairment, the study found.

"We identified that MDMA [Ecstasy] use is associated not only with
short-term consequences [on memory] but with long-term consequences as
well," Reneman wrote in the October issue of the medical journal Archives of
General Psychiatry.

Study participants, who ranged in age from 18 to 45, agreed not to use
psychoactive drugs for three weeks before the testing. The study noted that
Ecstasy users were more likely to smoke marijuana than the control group,
which might have influenced the memory test results.

Previous research has shown Ecstasy, sometimes known as MDMA or by its
chemical name 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, can cause dramatic changes
in heart rate and blood pressure. It can also lead to dehydration and has
been shown to cause lasting changes in the brain's chemical systems that
control mood and memory. Animal studies have shown damage to brain cells
connected to memory function.

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