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From: "***@***.***" <***@***.***>
To: "MAPS" <maps-forum@xxxxxxxx>
Subject: MAPS: Neurology 12/21/98: "Memory problems found in Ecstasy users"
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1998 21:36:38 -0800
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Has anyone seen this article?  It refers to a new study that just came out
recently in Neurology journal.  Any thoughts about it?

Here's the URL to the article:

http://www.foxnews.com/js_index.sml?content=3D/health/wires2/1221/h_rt_1221=
_17
=2Esml

And here's the text of the same article for those with slow Internet
connections:

----------------------------------------
"Memory problems found in Ecstasy users"

6:21 p.m. ET (2322 GMT) December 21, 1998

NEW YORK, Dec 21 (Reuters Health) =97 Individuals who have used the
recreational drug, Ecstasy (methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA), heavil=
y
can have problems remembering what they have seen and heard, according to a
report in the December issue of Neurology.

Dr. Karen Bolla, of the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore,
Maryland, and colleagues administered a series of standard psychological
tests to 30 Ecstasy users who had been abstinent for at least 2 weeks, and
28 control patients who had never used the drug.

Only patients who reported heavy use of the drug =97 400 milligrams or more
per month =97 displayed deficits in verbal and visual memory compared with
controls, Bolla's team reports. They also found that "the extent of memory
impairment correlates with the degree of MDMA exposure.''

Men showed greater memory impairments with increasing dose than women did.
Memory impairments were also greater with increasing dose for those with
lower intellectual abilities.

Ecstasy users also had lower levels of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA),
a marker of the neurotransmitter serotonin, in their spinal fluid.

"We found that the more MDMA a person reported using, the lower (the) level
of 5-HIAA. In addition, people with the lowest levels of 5-HIAA showed the
most trouble with visual memory tests,'' said Bolla in a statement. "This
suggests that Ecstasy has a dose-related effect on serotonin activity which=
,
in turn, affects memory in humans.''

The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), echoes recent
studies that found Ecstasy damages the ability of brain cells to communicat=
e
using serotonin.

"These studies sound an alarm to young people and their parents about the
serious dangers of this party drug,'' said Dr. Alan I. Leshner, director of
the National Institute on Drug Abuse, at the NIH.

According to the NIH, the drug "has been reported most frequently among
young adults and adolescents at clubs, raves, and rock concerts in Atlanta,
Miami, St. Louis, Seattle, and areas of Texas.''

SOURCE: Neurology 1998;51:1532-1537.


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