Ecstasy Popularity
After several years of falling popularity, ecstasy use has
once again been increasing in clubs and on college campuses. As this
recreational drug first appeared on the arena, it gained popularity fast among
adolescents and young adults in the nightclub scene or dance parties known as
“raves.” However, the profile of the typical ecstasy user has been changing now.
The drug is widely used by all demographic groups because so many young people
believe that ecstasy is a safe drug. A person may experience feelings of mental
stimulation, emotional warmth, empathy towards others, a general sense of
well-being and decreased anxiety.
The reason
ecstasy popularity has increased might be lying under its main traits, outlined
above. The research made on the reasons of sudden increase in Ecstasy
Popularity show that some people turn to it as a temporary means of escaping
the problem. It is also been observed that young people have started taking the
MDMA as a part of their lifestyle. Ecstasy popularity studies also shows that
recently people have tendency to take ecstasy more than other drugs because, it
has very few direct effects, almost all the effects are indirect and hence it
is considered as harmless by many users.
Young adults are not aware that ecstasy can produce a
variety of adverse health effects, including nausea, chills, sweating,
involuntary teeth clenching, muscle cramping, blurred vision and, in some
cases, death due to overdose. Ecstasy can affect the brain by altering the
activity of chemical messengers, or neurotransmitters with symptoms such as
high blood pressure, faintness, panic attacks, and in severe cases, a loss of
consciousness and seizures.
In this publication, we will not review in details all
negative effects on health and wellbeing, which ecstasy may cause to its
consumers, but we will focus on the scientifically proven facts, that its use
can lead to the severe consequences to the mental health, causing clinical depression.
What is Ecstasy?
Ecstasy is a slang or street name for Methylenedioxymethamphetamines
(MDMA) It is a synthetic, psychoactive mind-altering drug with hallucinogenic
and amphetamine (stimulant) like effects. It alters perception of time and
distance. MDMA was first developed in 1914 as an appetite suppressant or
diet drug. It was a legal substance up until 1985.
As Ecstasy was
considered as a natural antidepressant, doctors used to prescribe it to the
patients until it was banned by UN and USA. Prior to this ban, the MDMA was one
of the main tools against depression, the doctors had. It was also widely used for
treating post traumatic stress disorder.
MDMA/Ecstasy is produced in clandestine laboratories, and is
seldom pure. The amount in a capsule or tablet is likely to vary
considerably, which could lead to overdoses. Now, MDMA is under a Federal
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) -- Schedule I Substance -- meaning that
it has no medical use and high abuse potential. The Federal penalty for
manufacturing or selling can lead to fines up to four million dollars. A
ringleader or head manufacturer could receive life in prison.
What does ecstasy do to the brain?
Ecstasy works by stimulating the production of a brain
chemical called serotonin, key in the regulation of mood and emotion. The rush
you get comes from the release of much higher levels of serotonin than normal.
But by artificially messing with this production process, some scientists
believe users are diminishing their brain's ability to produce serotonin in the
future.
Mid-week Hangover
Ecstasy works by changing the way the brain produces and
handles the neurotransmitter serotonin that, among other things, regulates your
mood.
"Experts agree that once the initial serotonin rush
produced by the drug (the 'high') has passed, levels of serotonin in the brain
will fall," says Ruth Goldsmith from the independent drug information and
expertise centre DrugScope. "This seems to account for the 'mid-week
hangover' or 'Tuesday blues'; the short period of depression experienced by
many ecstasy users in the days following their use of the drug."
There are several possible reasons why ecstasy my cause the
short-term depression. MDMA works by
releasing from certain brain cells large amounts of the brain chemical,
serotonin. This release of serotonin is what causes Ecstasy’s mood elevation
effect, as well as the feelings of empathy, self-acceptance, and emotional
closeness with others that so many people find valuable and rewarding about the
drug. But in releasing large amounts of serotonin, MDMA also depletes the
brain’s supply. It then takes some time for the brain to replenish what was
released. How long does it take for serotonin levels to be fully restored after
someone takes Ecstasy? This depends on the individual’s diet, general heath,
genetic make-up, how much ecstasy the person took, and other random factors.
There’s no way to tell for sure, but based on animal studies, scientists say
that it could take anywhere from 48 hours to an entire week. The mild
depression some people feel after taking Ecstasy could be related to this
temporary depletion of serotonin.
Somehow similar theory states, that the release of serotonin also causes serotonin
receptors in the brain to down-regulate, which basically means turn themselves
off for a while. The up-and-down regulation of receptors is one of the primary
ways the brain tries to achieve homeostasis, or balance. These receptors work
in conjunction with the amount of serotonin around and are just as important in
the regulation of mood as serotonin itself. In trying to maintain a balanced
mood, these receptors respond to the amount of serotonin around by turning
themselves on and off (up-regulation and down-regulation). When they are
flooded with serotonin as a result of taking Ecstasy, many of them
down-regulate.
The majority of
these receptors will up-regulate again as soon as the excess serotonin is
metabolized away. However, some of these receptors may stay down-regulated
longer, perhaps days, weeks, or even months. The depression some people feel
after taking ecstasy may be a result of these serotonin receptors staying
down-regulated too long. Whether, how much, or how often this happens may
largely be a genetic factor unique to the individual.
Some people may
simply be genetically pre-disposed towards Ecstasy-related depression. Some
ecstasy users who experience depression might have been depressed before they
started using ecstasy. Depression is a common illness that often goes
undiagnosed and untreated. This is particularly true for teenagers and young
adults who suffer from mild to moderate depression. It is likely that many
compulsive ecstasy users are unconsciously trying to self-medicate their
depression. However, ecstasy use may play unfavorable role
in depression treatment, since by directly affecting serotonin, it may trigger
getting your neurotransmitters out of balance, especially if they already were in the
borderline condition.
Ecstasy
and Clinical Depression
While danger of
short-term mild depressive episodes has somewhat limited effect on mental
wellbeing, the long-term consequences might be far more dangerous, and even
disastrous.
Based on the
study 2003 results in Britain, experts warned that the changes to the brain
brought about by the drug leave a legacy of long-term mental health problems,
including memory loss and lack of concentration. Psychologists have found that
even those who gave up taking the drug several years ago scored higher on a
depression rating than people who had never taken it.
A 2005 Cambridge University study discovered that people
with a certain genetic make-up showed greater signs of depression after using
the drug. The Cambridge team looked at the gene which controls serotonin
transporters in the brain. Everybody has two copies of each gene, and there are
two possible versions which people can carry, so they can either be classed as
ll, ls or ss. They found that 60% of people who had the ss version were
assessed as having at least mild depression after taking ecstasy, while
non-drug users with the ss type displayed no such problems.
Similar results were received in 2006 during the three-year
study conducted at the PET Center at Arhus Hospital in Denmark, showed the
recreational drug caused depression in laboratory pigs. The scientists injected
pigs with varying doses of Ecstasy to study the effect the drug has on the
pigs' brains. The study has significant importance for humans as well, as pigs'
brains are quite similar to human brains in many perspectives.
Controversial Studies
Recently, the
Ecstasy positive and negative therapeutic effects came in light of the general
community due to several researches, producing controversial results of weather
ecstasy may cause the long-term brain damage or not.
There is no
evidence that ecstasy causes brain damage, according to one of the largest
studies into the effects of the drug. Too many previous studies made
over-arching conclusions from insufficient data, say the scientists responsible
for the research, and the drug's dangers have been greatly exaggerated. It was
concluded that ecstasy has not been linked to damage to the central nervous
system and no long-term changes to emotional states and behavior have been
triggered by consumption of the drug.
The study was
carried out by a team led by Professor John Halpern of Harvard Medical School
and published in the journal Addiction February 2011. Many experts who
have argued that the drug is relatively safe welcomed the new paper. "I
always assumed that, when properly designed studies were carried out, we would
find ecstasy does not cause brain damage," said Professor David Nutt, who
was fired as chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs by Alan
Johnson, then home secretary, for publicly stating alcohol and tobacco were
more harmful than ecstasy.
Ronald Cowan, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of Psychiatry
in his report in the May 2011 issue of Neuropsychopharmacology opposes
this viewpoint, insisting that recreational Ecstasy use is indeed associated
with a chronic change in brain function. Cowan and his colleagues examined
brain activation during visual stimulation, using functional magnetic resonance
imaging (fMRI), in subjects who had previously used Ecstasy (but not in the two
weeks prior to imaging) and in subjects who had not previously used Ecstasy. They
found increased brain activation in three brain areas associated with visual
processing in Ecstasy users with the highest lifetime exposure to the drug. The
findings were consistent with the investigators' predictions based on results
from animal models: that Ecstasy use is associated with a loss of serotonin
signaling, which leads to hyper-excitability (increased activation) in the
brain. The hyper-excitability suggests a loss in brain efficiency, Cowan said,
"meaning that it takes more brain area to process information or perform a
task." The investigators found that this shift in brain excitability did
not return to normal in subjects who had not used Ecstasy in more than a year.
Summary
While I am not expert on the topic, based on the various
resources, available on the Web, I can conclude that both proponents and
opponents of Ecstasy have their valid points, but research results are still
inconclusive to choose side. There are multiple studies and clinical ongoing
trials, trying to bring the positive effects of the drug to the safe medicine
(for PTSD, depression, and cancer treatment) in Europe, Israel, and USA, but there
is still a long way to go, and the resulting drugs might be substantially
modified by the scientists from the state as you may take it now.
For those, who use ecstasy as recreational drug on regular
basis, I have one question to ask: Are you ready to jeopardize your health for
short-term positive emotional effect, if there is a chance that it may cause
your mental destabilization on long run? Think about that, before you take next
pill.
In any case, there are safer alternatives, as marijuana,
for example...
Sources and Additional
Information:
