Biological Psychiatry
September 15, 2007
Mauro Federici, Luca Sebastianelli, Silvia Natoli et al.
Although dopamine (DA) has been implicated in the psychostimulant properties of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), there is no detailed information on its modalities of action on single ventral midbrain dopaminergic neurons. We examined the actions of MDMA on intracellularly recorded dopaminergic neurons maintained in slices. At 1 micromol/L, MDMA depolarized and excited the cells; at 3...
Acta neuropathologica
September 2007
Matthew W Warren, Stephen F Larner, Firas H Kobeissy et al.
Abuse of the club drugs Methamphetamine (Meth) and Ecstasy (MDMA) is an international problem. The seriousness of this problem is the result of what appears to be programmed cell death (PCD) occurring within the brain following their use. This follow up study focused on determining which cell types, neurons and/or glial cells, were affected in the brains of drug-injected rats. Two proteolytic...
Journal of Psychopharmacology
August 22, 2007
Rüssel S. Falck, Jichuan Wang, Robert G. Carlson
45 citations
Research suggests that methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)/`ecstasy' can cause serotonin depletion as well as serotonergic neurodegradation that may result in depression. This longitudinal study used the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) to assess depressive symptomatology every six months over a two-year period among a community sample of young adult MDMA/`ecstasy' users ( n = 402)....
The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
August 2007
Matthew W Warren, Wenrong Zheng, Firas H Kobeissy et al.
Abuse of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or Ecstasy) and methamphetamine (Meth or Speed) is a growing international problem with an estimated 250 million users of psychoactive drugs worldwide. It is important to demonstrate and understand the mechanism of neurotoxicity so potential prevention and treatment therapies can be designed. In this study rat primary cerebrocortical neuron...
Addictive Behaviors
August 2007
Hylke K E Vervaeke, Dirk J Korf, Annemieke Benschop et al.
This article documents the design and the sampling procedures of a prospective longitudinal multidisciplinary study on the neurotoxicity of ecstasy (MDMA): the Netherlands XTC Toxicity Study (NeXT). Targeted and snowball sampling was used to recruit 188 respondents who were ecstasy-naive at baseline. All respondents completed baseline questionnaires and underwent medical and neuropsychological...
Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology
August 2007
Rosa Hoshi, Lisa Cohen, Lucy Lemanski et al.
+/-3, 4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or ecstasy) remains a widely used recreational drug, which, in animals, can produce long-lasting changes to the brain's serotonergic system. As serotonin has been implicated in human aggression, it is possible that ecstasy users are at risk of increased aggression even after prolonged abstention from the drug. The objective of this study was to...
Psychopharmacology
August 2007
Gerry Jager, Maartje M. L. de Win, Hylke K E Vervaeke et al.
Heavy ecstasy use in humans has been associated with cognitive impairments and changes in cognitive brain function supposedly due to damage to the serotonin system. There is concern that even a single dose of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine may be neurotoxic, but very little is known about the consequences of a low dose of ecstasy for cognitive brain function. The objective of the study was...
Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry
July 25, 2007
Edmund Silins, Jan Copeland, Paul Dillon
76 citations
Growth of the antidepressant market and widespread use of the illicit drug ecstasy (methylenedioxymethamphetamine; MDMA) creates a need to delineate the potential harms associated with the concomitant use of ecstasy and serotonergic pharmaceutical drugs. One such harm is serotonin syndrome. The study aimed to synthesize the risk of serotonin syndrome associated with the concomitant use of...
Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental
July 10, 2007
Keith R. Laws, Joy Kokkalis
75 citations
Abstract A meta‐analysis was conducted to examine the impact of recreational ecstasy use on short‐term memory (STM), long‐term memory (LTM), verbal and visual memory. We located 26 studies containing memory data for ecstasy and non‐ecstasy users from which effect sizes could be derived. The analyses provided measures of STM and LTM in 610 and 439 ecstasy users and revealed moderate‐to‐large...
Journal of Forensic Sciences
July 2007
Teri L Martin, David A Chiasson, Stephen J. Kish
Ecstasy (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, MDMA) is a psychoactive amphetamine derivative widely used for recreational purposes. Deaths caused by acute drug intoxication with MDMA are rare but can often involve a severe hyperthermic episode. The factors underlying the increased risk of some ecstasy users to a fatal drug reaction are not known. We present a case report of a 24-year-old woman...