The transport vessels that carry serotonin in the brain will atrophy with sustained use of Ecstasy. Studies have shown that MDMA can cause brain damage, including a shrinking of the brain, and a decrease in the hippocampus volume. A dysfunctional and damaged hippocampus is connected to memory loss diseases like Alzheimer’s. MDMA, more commonly known as Ecstasy, is a dangerous synthetic drug.
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In October 2010, Ms A, a 17-year-old African American girl without previous psychiatric or medical history, obtained MDMA from her friend and ingested the pill. She began experiencing auditory hallucinations and displaying disorganized speech and behavior shortly thereafter. She was taken to the University of South Alabama, Mobile, emergency department for evaluation and treatment of her behavior.
Long-Term Effects of MDMA
That’s because, as Thaler says, you can’t think clearly while you’re high. If personal accounts and the 1999 Jay Mohr vehicle Go are to be believed, MDMA is the best drug on earth. The substance — once called Ecstasy, now Molly — has been a rave/electronic party post covid alcohol intolerance staple for decades. After some relatively fallow years in the late 2000s, the drug has enjoyed a pop-culture renaissance since 2012, when Kanye rapped about it, Miley danced with it, and the media was flooded with articles warning everyone of its dangers.
Memory-related hippocampal dysfunction in poly-drug ecstasy (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine) users
This is true, but the amount ingested is lower and the body temperature of the person using it is often significantly lower than someone on a dance floor at a rave. If you do a search on Google, it seems as though there is a lot of conflicting evidence as to whether Ecstasy causes brain damage. One article will say that it is far more damaging to the brain than we originally thought, yet another says that there is no long-term damage as a result of taking Ecstasy. This is a topic certainly up for debate as much research surrounding the usage of MDMA has been falsely skewed as government propaganda. The number of people who die from party drugs is relatively low compared to other drugs such as heroin, alcohol, and pharmaceuticals.
Long-Term Effects of Molly
Draconian new anti-MDMA laws were passed, including the infamous RAVE Act, which made it illegal to throw a party if you “should have known” that some people would be using drugs at it. MAPS, which had been on the verge of finally having its MDMA post-traumatic stress disorder research approved, was stopped cold in the face of the apparent new evidence of MDMA’s horrific dangers. The study’s findings shed light on the impact of chronic MDMA use on the principal excitatory neurotransmitter system in the brain in addition to its well-known effects on the serotonin system. MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, is a widely used recreational drug known for its empathogenic and euphoric effects. However, there has been growing concern about the potential long-term consequences of MDMA use on brain function and mental health (Gill et al., 2020; De Gregorio et al., 2021). Memory deficit was detected in young mice exposed to MDMA that was explained by the increased expression of early markers of plasticity, observed through the reduction in dopaminergic markers in the substantia nigra.
- According to the review, there has been some evidence to suggest that MDMA may be beneficial for conditions like anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
- This contributes to the emotional excitement, euphoric feelings, and cognitive impairment you may often experience with MDMA use.
- Haloperidol 5 mg and lorazepam 1 mg were also employed on an as-needed basis and were administered frequently over several days.
- However, since most studies of these effects have been on rats, experts say more research on humans is needed to better understand what’s going on in the brain.
Our helpline is open, and our staff is ready to provide information on addiction treatment options for you or your loved one. Serotonin neurons are located throughout the brain, and molly has been linked to the destruction of these neurons and their multiple functions. Molly causes severe dehydration, especially when a person is engaging harbor house sober living in rigorous activity. If a person consumes excessive amounts of water, it can result in an electrolyte imbalance. The people we recruit are representative of the larger user population. If Ricaurte et al have additional information about this case that was unavailable to the doctors treating the patient, they have made no mention of it.
According to the review, there has been some evidence to suggest that MDMA may be beneficial for conditions like anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). For example, several studies included in the review found that MDMA was able to produce long lasting reductions in severe PTSD symptoms. In a 2021 review, researchers explored the literature on the use of several hallucinogens ― including MDMA ― for mental health treatment. Overall, research on the effects of chronic MDMA use is limited, and more studies in humans are needed to determine the long-term effects of this drug. One thing to note, however, is that many of the studies included in this review were animal studies, not human studies.
People who use ‘ecstasy’ were (prior to their drug use) just like non-drug users. There’s been a news story claiming that ecstasy use causes depression. The research this story is based gallstones and alcohol on has apparently never been published, suggesting that it was of such low quality that even in an age of anti-drug hysteria no scientific publication felt it was worth printing.
Despite MDMA’s reputation as a party drug, neuroscientists and psychologists are hard at work studying its potential to help treat psychiatric diseases like post-traumatic stress disorder. Small neuroscientific studies of the drug suggest it may help blunt negative feelings about the past while enhancing positive ones — a conclusion that would make sense given its reputation as a “love drug.” Most of our conclusions about the effects of MDMA have focused on serotonin, one of the most widely studied neurotransmitters. In addition to acutely affecting mood, it’s thought to affect how we sleep and experience pain. Ark Behavioral Health offers 100% confidential substance abuse assessment and treatment placement tailored to your individual needs. While “rolling” on MDMA, your improved mood and excitement may also increase feelings of trust.
They also suggested that the NMDA receptor antagonism might be one of the therapeutic targets for MDMA-related problems (Garcia-Pardo et al., 2015). In addition, the potential treatments to protect toxicity caused by MDMA have also been studied. Dextromethorphan and its metabolite, dextrorphan, may have a protective effect against MDMA-induced serotonergic toxicity in the brain (Finnegan, Skratt, Irwin, & Langston, 1989; Ma et al., 2016). Dextrorphan was believed to prevent the effects of serotonin depletion by MDMA in the striatum, hippocampus, and cortex (Finnegan et al., 1989). Data reported by the United Nations on Drugs and Crime on the total number of drug addicts worldwide shows the increasing number of drug users every year. Global trends in the estimated number of drug users (15–64 years old) increased from 208 million to 255 million people from 2006 to 2015, while people with drug user disorders increased from 26 million to 29.5 million cases (UNODC, 2017).
We do not know if the axons and serotonergic system fully recovers after ecstasy usage, but it is logical to think that it would. A neurosurgeon that I spoke with hypothesized that people can sustain some damage in the brain and it typically won’t have a long term effect. With that said, most evidence does suggest that recreational ecstasy (MDMA) use will result in (at least) temporary problems and possible damage. Research conducted by Liechti in 2000 showed that pretreatment with 40 mg of an SSRI can decrease MDMA effects by 1.5 mg/kg. In 1999, Aguirre found that 2x daily administration of high dose alpha-lipoic acid completely blocked the neurotoxicity of Ecstasy in rats. Some even hypothesize that antioxidants even help enhance recovery from low doses of MDMA.
While MDMA or ecstasy was initially used primarily in nightclubs and raves, its use has now spread to a wider range of populations. According to a 2021 survey by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 0.8% of the U.S. population over the age of 12 reported using this drug in the previous 12 months. However, prolonged or heavy use of MDMA can have short- and long-term effects on your brain, which may lead to emotional and cognitive issues. MDMA, also known as ecstasy or Molly, is a synthetic psychoactive drug that acts as both a stimulant and a hallucinogen, changing mood and perception. Heavy use of MDMA (ecstasy) may lead to long-term changes in your brain’s serotonin system — but there’s a lot we still don’t know.
In the final analysis, I must regard this recent product of Ricaurte et al. as more of an act of propaganda than a sincere attempt to advance public understanding. There is no reason to believe that there is a coming wave of ‘Ecstasy Parkinsonism’ among human “ecstasy” users, or even that common patterns of use pose a risk of injury to the dopaminergic system. Shame on the authors for the incomplete, misleading and sensationalistic nature of this research report, and shame on the editors of Science for publishing it. Equally intriguing is the author’s claim that “oral administration offers little or no significant neuroprotection” relative to the injected route used in the experiment. So, how it possible that the original piece of Ricaurte research, so vaunted by the US government, trumpeted from every news outlet, and chronically referred to in prohibitionist literature as proof of the evils of MDMA was so badly off?