A case of a patient with intracranial haemorrhage thought to have been associated with ingestion of 'Ecstasy' [3-4 methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)] is presented. The case illustrates the importance of drug analysis in cases involving illicit drug use.
A previously fit 35 year old man presented with a right hemiparesis and dysphasia 36 hours after abuse of Ecstasy (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine). Computerized axial tomography scan demonstrated an extensive acute left cerebral infarction and carotid digital subtraction angiogram, 2 days after admission, revealed left middle cerebral artery occlusion. There were no other known risk factors...
AbstractA seventeen year old man attended the National Drug Treatment Centre with a paranoid psychosis following ingestion of Methylene dioxy methamphetamine (MDMA). He had been taking MDMA on a recreational basis over a five month period. Although chronic psychosis after heavy use of MDMA has been reported there are no pervious reports of psychosis following recreational use. This report...
One-carbon homologation of phenylalkylamine or indolylalkylamine hallucinogens containing an alpha-methyl substituent typically results in a reduction of hallucinogenic potency; however, this same structural change has little to no effect on agents that produce MDMA-like effects. In the present investigation, rats trained to discriminate 1.5 mg/kg of MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine)...
Many drugs of abuse such as d-amphetamine support the development of taste aversion in a conditioned taste aversion paradigm. However, it has yet to be established whether methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), an amphetamine-like stimulant, has this property. A direct comparison was made between MDMA and d-amphetamine over a dose range of 0.125-2.0 mg/kg (SC). Two pairings of either drug with...
(+/- )3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is a recreational drug of abuse which damages serotonin neurons in animals. It is not known whether MDMA is also neurotoxic in humans, and if so, whether there are functional consequences. Given the putative role of serotonin in sleep, it was hypothesized that one manifestation of serotonin neurotoxicity in humans might be disturbances of sleep. To...
The concentration of serotonin (5-HT) measured in rat striatum was reduced to 75% of control 1 week after a single subcutaneous administration of dl-3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, 20 mg/kg). This decrease was prevented by pretreating the animals with ritanserin. Eighteen hours after MDMA (20 mg/kg), striatal concentrations of neurotensin-like immunoreactivity (NTLI) and of dynorphin...
The recreational drug (+/-)-3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, "Ecstasy") is toxic to central serotonin (5-HT) neurons, but few long-term functional consequences of MDMA neurotoxicity have been identified. Because 5-HT has been implicated in learning and memory, the present study was undertaken to examine whether MDMA, by damaging 5-HT neurons, altered mnemonic function on a long-term...
The effect of acute, reversible depletion of either serotonin [5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)] or dopamine (DA) on the long-term (7-day) decrease of brain 5-HT content produced after 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) administration was investigated. The tyrosine hydroxylase inhibitor alpha-methyl-p-tyrosine (alpha-MPT) significantly attenuated the acute increase in DA efflux produced by MDMA...
(+/-)3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), a synthetic amphetamine derivative used recreationally by humans, damages brain serotonin neurons in experimental animals. In preclinical studies, serotonin reuptake inhibitors block MDMA-induced serotonin release; they also block MDMA neurotoxicity. Whether serotonin reuptake inhibitors also block MDMA's psychoactive effects in humans has not been...