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Disclaimer: I have never used Ecstasy....... I think the article jumps to conclusions, but I thought I would throw it out there for all you recreational drug users.
Ecstasy May Deplete Key Brain Chemical
ByJerry Gottlick
Health24News Staff Writer
WASHINGTON--The recreational club drug Ecstasy may severely decrease the levels of a key chemical in the brain that controls mood and emotion, Canadian researchers report in a tentative finding. A post-mortem analysis of a 26-year-old man who began using the drug at age 17 revealed serotonin levels that were 50 to 80 percent lower than in healthy subjects.
Serotonin is a chemical in the brain that controls key functions such as mood, pain perception, sleep, appetite and emotions. Ecstasy--known by the chemical name methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA--causes the brain to release serotonin. Users of Ecstasy, many of them young, report an overall sense of well-being and increased feelings of intimacy. Ecstasy is structurally related to the hallucinogen mescaline and the stimulant amphetamine.
The nine-year user of Ecstasy, who died from a drug overdose, began taking the drug two to three days a month initially; however, in the last years of his life, he had increased his use to four to five nights a week at rave clubs, according to the report. Normally, he would binge on the drug over a three-day weekend period, researchers in Toronto say. After such a binge, he would appear to friends as depressed and to have slow speech, movement and reaction times. Shortly before his death, he had also begun using cocaine and heroin, hair analysis showed.
The researchers compared the study subject's brain to those from autopsies of 11 healthy people and found in his much lower levels of serotonin in an area of the brain called the striatal, which plays a key role in coordinating movement. In addition, the scientists found similarly low levels of a chemical that is made by breaking down serotonin.
The study authors characterized the findings as "tentative" and said further studies are needed to confirm the role that Ecstasy plays in serotonin depletion.
The findings are reported in the July 25 issue of Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
For more information, visit the The American Academy of Neurology and the National Institutes of Health.
Ecstasy May Deplete Key Brain Chemical
ByJerry Gottlick
Health24News Staff Writer
WASHINGTON--The recreational club drug Ecstasy may severely decrease the levels of a key chemical in the brain that controls mood and emotion, Canadian researchers report in a tentative finding. A post-mortem analysis of a 26-year-old man who began using the drug at age 17 revealed serotonin levels that were 50 to 80 percent lower than in healthy subjects.
Serotonin is a chemical in the brain that controls key functions such as mood, pain perception, sleep, appetite and emotions. Ecstasy--known by the chemical name methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA--causes the brain to release serotonin. Users of Ecstasy, many of them young, report an overall sense of well-being and increased feelings of intimacy. Ecstasy is structurally related to the hallucinogen mescaline and the stimulant amphetamine.
The nine-year user of Ecstasy, who died from a drug overdose, began taking the drug two to three days a month initially; however, in the last years of his life, he had increased his use to four to five nights a week at rave clubs, according to the report. Normally, he would binge on the drug over a three-day weekend period, researchers in Toronto say. After such a binge, he would appear to friends as depressed and to have slow speech, movement and reaction times. Shortly before his death, he had also begun using cocaine and heroin, hair analysis showed.
The researchers compared the study subject's brain to those from autopsies of 11 healthy people and found in his much lower levels of serotonin in an area of the brain called the striatal, which plays a key role in coordinating movement. In addition, the scientists found similarly low levels of a chemical that is made by breaking down serotonin.
The study authors characterized the findings as "tentative" and said further studies are needed to confirm the role that Ecstasy plays in serotonin depletion.
The findings are reported in the July 25 issue of Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
For more information, visit the The American Academy of Neurology and the National Institutes of Health.
) and I find that it helps me look at things at a different angle. It is VERY popular where I live and on any given weekend at the clubs that I go to approximately 50% of the people are rolling. 
