MAPS: Re: Neurology 12/21/98: "Memory problems found in Ecstasy users"

[cynic@xxxxxxxxxxx]

> "Memory problems found in Ecstasy users"

> Individuals who have used Ecstasy heavily can have problems remembering what they have seen and heard.

see:
http://www.newscientist.com/ns/970621/necstasy.html
and
http://www.newscientist.com/ns/970621/editorial.html
(these articles are primarily on midweek depression in MDMA users)

I guess I found thees links in a MAPS bulletin but I'm not really sure.
The 'necstasy' file covers several scientific reports from 1997 concluding that using MDMA causes memory impairment.
But, as it is written in the other 'editorial' file: "Where mental sharpness is blunted--in tests of recall--Ecstasy users still perform within the range of normal behaviour."

> Dr. Karen Bolla 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.

New Scientist again: "...the researchers have no way of knowing precisely what their subjects have taken."
The question is: did Bolla administer MDMA too, to know that it was really methylenedioxymethamphetamine and not something else? Did the volunteers at least undergo urine testing? If not, and I suppose neither of these happened, the credibility of the study is lowered approx. to 25%, as about 1 out of 4 pills sold in the streets as ecstasy really contain MDMA.

> Ecstasy users also had lower levels of (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. This suggests that Ecstasy has a dose-related effect on serotonin activity which, in turn, affects memory in humans."

I think that MDMA's influence on 5-HT is widely accepted as a fact, but--according to my own experience--it's not as simple as saying that the less 5-HT there is in your brain the worse your memory works. I have used fluvoxamine (Fevarin--made by Duphar) for two months and then I temporarily stopped that. After two or three days without the drug I realized that everything that happened while I was using Fevarin was 'fogged out'. I remembered everything, but thing were 'fuzzy' and I realized that I'd behaved strangely while using the pills. The psychiatrist who prescribed Fevarin for me suggested that I 'added' this (a placebo effect). I don't agree with this oppinion: placebo effect derives from expectation. I had no knowledge of SSRI when I started using Fevarin and the only thing I expected to happen was lifting my depression.

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Cynic                            cynic@xxxxxxxxxxx
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