Ecstasy: Short-Term High, Long-Term Damage
MONDAY, July 22, 2002 (HealthDayNews) -- The popular "club" drug ecstasy can harm your sleep pattern, alter your mood and diminish your memory -- and these effects can last up to two years after you stop using the drug.
Moreover, a new study says, there's no way to gauge accurately how much use it takes to trigger the ill effects.
Harvard researchers came to these conclusions after reviewing the medical literature on studies about ecstasy, known by researchers as MDMA or 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine. Users call it by such street names as hug, beans and love drug because it triggers a desire to be touched and hugged. Their report is in the current issue of the Harvard Review of Psychiatry.
"We're most concerned about chronic use," says lead author Dr. Bruce Price, chief of neurology at McLean Hospital and an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. However, they don't know if one or two doses might also be problematic.
Ecstasy is popular among teens and young adults attending so-called raves, dance parties that continue sometimes for days. The drug, in tablet form, is both a stimulant and a hallucinogenic. Its use has been rising dramatically, and affecting younger people as well.
Hospital emergency room visits related to ecstasy use have skyrocketed from 253 nationwide in 1994 to 4,511 in 2000, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Such an emergency room visit triggered the Harvard review, Price says. A young college student attended a rave weekend, took some ecstasy, and experienced hallucinations when he returned home. By the time he got to the emergency room, Price recalls, he was paranoid and delusional.
"That's when the red flags went up," Price says.
After reviewing the literature, Price's team concludes that "the drug affects serotonin and dopamine neurons, perhaps permanently." In studies reviewed, users reported a lack of motivation, poor memory recall and a persistently depressed mood, he says.
Even more frightening was that it was not possible to pinpoint the time or usage level at which problems start. "We are not sure how much is [considered] heavy use," Price says.
What they do know, he says, is that repeated use of the drug leads to problems with sleep, mood and anxiety, as well as elevated impulsivity and attention and memory problems. Studies suggest those effects may last for up to two years after the drug is stopped.
From a practical point of view, Price says, a young person with an ecstasy habit might be too unmotivated to get a job, have too little attention to learn on the job if he does get one, and too depressed to continue with it.
What's not known, the Harvard researchers say, is whether the damage is permanent.
Another expert, Dr. Stuart Shipko, a psychiatrist in Pasadena, Calif., who has counseled ecstasy users, says he "fundamentally agrees" with the conclusions of the Harvard researchers but says they may understate the concern. "It's surprising we don't see more of these problems," he says, citing widespread use of the drug.
Ecstasy users tell him, "There's no high like the first one." Then, he says, they often use again and again to recapture the initial high. It's also common that ecstasy users take other drugs at the same time, experts say.
Shipko agrees with Price that some ill effects may set in after just a few uses of the drug. "Clinically I do see people who develop panic disorder [a condition of severe anxiety in which the autonomic nervous system goes haywire] after one or two uses," Shipko says.
So what can parents and other adults do to discourage drug use? "Fear doesn't work well," Price says, "Although you may want to tell them they are playing with fire. It's user beware."
What To Do
For facts about ecstasy, visit the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Partnership for a Drug-Free America.
