Thursday, November 30, 2006


Not very ecstatic news:


Yes, they seem to have done yet another study on something that is obvious to most of us, but this one proves that using MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylamphetamine), most commonly known by the street names Ecstasy, E, X, or XTC just one time (even the first time) can damage the users brain leading to memory loss (in verbal memory retention tests), indications of subtle changes in cell architecture and decreased blood flow in some brain regions.

"We found a decrease in blood circulation in some areas of the brain in
young adults who just started to use ecstasy," said Maartje de Win, M.D.,
radiology resident at the Academic Medical Center at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. "In addition, we found a relative decrease in verbal memory
performance in ecstasy users compared to non-users."

It is fairly well known that long-term or heavy ecstasy use can damage serotonergic neurons and cause depression, anxiety, confusion, difficulty sleeping and decrease in memory. However, no previous studies have looked at the effects of low doses of the drug on first-time users.

This means that even one time use of this drug is strictly a no-no if you want to look after your brain...

Read more here.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

i think i have been very lucky not to have any noticeable affects (or unnoticeable hopefully) from taking stuff like this. thank god i have grown up and stopped doing it :-)

Steppen Wolf said...

Hi Sue,
Thank you for visiting. Will keep looking out at your blog for interesting paintings...

Lynette said...

eek that's an easy question to answer, I would pick being a real person with all it's harsh realities, not a brain floating in a vat of liquid. This made me think of the scenario in the movie 'Matrix'.