Wood R, Synovitz LB (2001). Addressing the threats of MDMA (Ecstasy): implications for school health professionals, parents, and community members. J Sch Health 71: 38-41
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This review is written expressly for an audience of school health professionals, such as counselors and nurses, with attention divided between attempting to provide information about drug effects and suggesting means toward drug use prevention strategies in high school. While the information is adequate for this audience, the review is fraught with errors. Discussion of drug use demographics as its strongest point. Its weakest points are sections on the history of MDMA and discussions of potential MDMA neurotoxicity. The authors state, incorrectly, that MDMA has damaged serotonin "receptors" in non-human animals. Common subjective effects and side-effects are described, but with the addition of some rarely described presentations, such as cardiac problems or vomiting, and the authors seem to be unaware of clinical studies on the subjective effects of MDMA, despite a reference to the work of Greer and Tolbert (1986). The authors present list of actions that school health staff could perform to reduce risks posed by ecstasy use, but the list of actions is not supported by research findings concerning their potential for success. While acceptable as a very broad overview of ecstasy use, this review is far weaker than other reviews.

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