"Real World" Ecstasy Use
Press Release April. 2011
In order to understand the effects of the ecstasy
pill, Australian researchers studied people who
were using this drug at parties and soon came to
realize that because the ecstasy pill contains other
drugs as well, the brains of ecstasy users are more
at risk than suspected.
Dr. Thomas Newton, a professor at Baylor College
of Medicine, was not involved in the research but
revealed his concern that most studies focused on
toxicity only look into a single drug, "We
have no idea what happens when you start mixing
like this," he says, users are more at risk
because of the mixture of harmful ingredients that
make up a single ecstasy pill.”
Fifty six people who had taken ecstasy in the past
let researchers join parties where they would take
the drug again. The researchers took samples of
the pills as well as measurements of MDMA (the chemical
in ecstasy) from the users’ blood, paying
each one 200 dollars at the end of the research.
The amount of MDMA reached devastatingly high in
some participants but researchers noticed that some
pills had no MDMA at all. Most contained methamphetamine
or chemicals related to MDMA. "This highlights
a significant public health concern, particularly
regarding the existence of pills containing more
than 200 milligrams of MDMA," the authors write
in their report of the study, which is published
in the journal “Addiction”. This
research, which was funded by the National Health
and Medical Research Council of Australia, took
place to capture a realistic view of ecstasy users.
According to Dr. Rod Irvine, the lead author of
the study, collecting data at parties is more
effective than in a lab setting due to ethical
restrictions that prevent researchers from testing
high doses in people. In fact, the amounts they
experiment with, reportedly did not reflect the
range used naturally. Most participants took more
than one pill, sometimes as many as five in the
course of the night. Irvine states that taking
multiple pills is likely to lead to very high
blood concentration, which may be harmful and
possibly fatal.
Seven out of every 100 twelfth-graders say they
have tried ecstasy. According to the US National
Institute on Drug Abuse, ecstasy can interfere
with heart rate and temperature regulation in
addition to causing brain damage. No one in this
study, however, suffered immediate health problems
from using ecstasy.
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RELATED TOPICS:
MDMA (Ecstasy
Overview)
How is
MDMA Abused?
How Does
MDMA Affect the Brain?
What
Other Adverse Effects Does MDMA Have on Health?
What
Are the Treatment Options for MDMA/Ecstasy?
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