MAPS: MDMA Memory Study, December 1998

["earth" <earth@xxxxxxxxxx>]

  A study was published in the December, 1998 issue of Neurology
which gave intelligence as well as visual and verbal memory tests to MDMA 
users and group of control subjects who had not used MDMA.  The researchers at
Johns Hopkins (Bolla, McCann, & Ricaurte) report that "MDMA users have 
impairment in verbal and visual memory [and] the extent of memory impairment 
correlates with the degree of MDMA exposure".

  We are assembling a page focused on this study.  Fire OCR'ed and HTML'ed
the study today and we are collecting press reports and discussions of the
study.  We would very much appreciate any comments people have on
the content and findings of the study.

http://www.erowid.org/mdma/mdma_study_memory/

  I find the published results to be somewhat confusing in several places
and since they chose not to include any of the raw data, it is difficult to check
their conclusions.

  One striking finding is represented in figure 1:

www.erowid.org/x/mdma_study_memory/mdma_study_memory_
1298.shtml#discussion

which shows decreased memory scores with increased MDMA use *for
users with lower vocabulary scores*.  From the figure it appears
that users with higher vocabulary scores actually increase their memory
testing scores as their dosage levels increase.  Is this a correct reading
of the figure and data as presented?  Doesn't this seem a very unlikely
result if their premise is that increased MDMA use causes decrease in
memory effects?

We hope everyone is well this winter and appreciate any discussion
or feedback people might have on this newly published work from
the folks at Johns Hopkins.


earth & fire

Erowid Entheogen Vaults
http://www.erowid.org/entheogens/








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