Rats given a neurotoxic regimen of 4 hourly doses of 5 mg/kg MDMA for 2 consecutive days underwent 3 tests of anxiety; emergence test (time spent in "hide box" scored as anxious), social interaction test (increased social interaction scored as indicating less anxious), and elevated plus maze. The emergence test was performed 4 weeks post-drug (MDMA or saline), the social interaction task was performed 6 weeks post-drug and the elevated plus maze was performed 9 weeks post-drug. Amount of 5-HT, 5-HIAA and DA were assessed in brains of MDMA treated and saline-treated rats killed at 10 weeks post-drug. As expected, MDMA treated rats had significantly decreased 5-HT in the amygdala, hippocampus and caudate-putamen, but no differences in brain DA content. MDMA-treated rats showed increased anxiety in all tests, including the emergence, social interaction and elevated plus maze. However, MDMA-treated rats did not have significantly different scores in every measure-related score. Study findings of increased anxiety after neurotoxic MDMA regimen are in agreement with earlier studies conducted by the same research team, and stand in contrast to findings of reduced anxiety after a neurotoxic dose of MDMA in Dark Agouti rats (Mechan et al. 2002). While the authors suggest that increased anxiety in MDMA-treated rats is analogous to anxiety reported in ecstasy users, a number of recently published reports (e.g. Daumann et al. 2001; Morgan et al. 2002) indicate instead that the apparent association between ecstasy use and a number of psychological problems, including anxiety, are at least partly and perhaps wholly due to use of other drugs.