Fw: MAPS: MDMA Neurotoxicity Research: Letter in Lancet (fwd)

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 00:14:20 -0400
From: Lee Bonnifield <lee@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Jon Frederick <smiile@xxxxxxxx>
Subject: Fw: MAPS: MDMA Neurotoxicity Research: Letter in Lancet

Was ANYBODY able to read this message in the MAPS forum?  To me it looks
like a
blank message. From experience I guessed correctly that  I could see the
text if I did File/Properties/Details/Message Source.  Now I see that
another way to recover the text is to FORWARD it -- then the text shows up
on my screen quoted with > . I've asked about this recurring MAPS forum
problem before. I'll quit asking, if you explain what causes it, or that you
don't know what causes it.


-----Original Message-----
From: Karl.Jansen <Karl.Jansen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: maps-forum@xxxxxxxx <maps-forum@xxxxxxxx>
Date: Wednesday, April 28, 1999 10:07 PM
Subject: MAPS: MDMA Neurotoxicity Research: Letter in Lancet


>
>Letter Accepted in Lancet:
>
>Volume 353, Number 9160  10 April 1999
>
>
>   Toxic effect of MDMA on brain serotonin neurons
>
>Sir--U D McCann and colleagues equate self-reported use of ecstasy with
>the use of MDMA. Tablets described by users or dealers as ecstasy may
>contain one or more of various substituted amphetamines, including MDMA,
>amphetamine, ephedrine, ketamine, tiletamine, or other compounds.2,3 These
>drugs do not have identical neuropharmacological properties.4 Thus, what
>these investigators have shown is a difference in serotonin transporter
>activity between a group of individuals who thought they had taken MDMA in
>the past, compared with a group of people who said they had never taken
>MDMA before.
>
>The MDMA users were tested for psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety and
>depression, and all proved normal. So, these differences in transporter
>activity relative to the control group existed without any anxiety and
>depression, as established by the investigators themselves.
>
>Although MDMA may cause some brain changes, the evidence for chronic
>depression and anxiety disorders as a result of these changes is
>unconvincing. The midweek mood dip (which usually returns to normal by the
>end of the week) that follows weekend use of MDMA is due to an acute fall
>in serotonin, not to structural brain changes.
>
>Were the MDMA users selected entirely at random from all the persons who
>replied to their advertisements, rather than from a highly selected
>subsample? None of the 14 cases reported includes people who described
>taking more than 400 pills. The manner in which the 14 cases seem to have
>been selected from a large initial sample raises questions about the
>statistics used. The investigators should clarify their selection
>procedure.
>
>The statement that the absence of neuropsychiatric disorder means that the
>low concentrations of transporter could not have been pre-existing is
>unproven. People with lower concentrations of transporter and other
>neurochemical differences may experience drives to take drugs of this
>nature, or to seek stimulation in other ways, without necessarily having a
>neuropsychiatric disorder. That the participants were tested and proved
>free from such disorders confirms the point that low serotonin transporter
>activity can co-exist with a normal mental state.
>
>We believe that it would be valuable to compare serotonin transporter
>activity in heavy cocaine users with MDMA users. Cocaine is a stimulant
>that may be sought out by people who might have a pre-existing
>underactivity of some brain systems, such as parts of the dopamine and
>serotonin systems.  Cocaine is not, however, a ring-substituted
>amphetamine and does not cause specific changes to serotonin fine
>terminals. So if heavy cocaine users proved to show similar changes in
>serotonin transporter mechanisms to MDMA users, we could conclude that
>these deficits, relative to non-drug use, are pre-existing and not caused
>by MDMA. We are not convinced that the differences reported by McCann were
>not pre-existing, because the putative use patterns and doses of MDMA were
>generally well below those that cause persistent changes in most animal
>studies. We agree with McCann and colleagues that some people take MDMA at
>levels equivalent to those used in some animal studies.5
>
>Conclusive proof requires following a group of individuals who continue to
>use large amounts of MDMA alone, and a comparison of the progression of
>changes in their serotonin transporter activity with cocaine users and a
>group of people who do not use drugs.
>
>Karl L R Jansen, *A R W Forrest
>
>
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