FAQ about Ecstasy

How are Ecstasy / MDMA abused?

MDMA / Ecstasy are taken orally as a capsule or tablet. It was initially popular among white adolescents and young adults in the nightclub scene or at weekend-long dance parties known as raves. A harmless feel-good drug—that’s the mistake too many young people make about ecstasy. Known as a “club drug” because it often is used in dance clubs and all-night raves, ecstasy burst onto the social scene in the 1990s. However, the profile of the typical MDMA / Ecstasy user has changed, and the drug now affects a broader range of ethnic groups. MDMA / Ecstasy is also popular among urban gay males—some report using MDMA as part of a multiple-drug experience that includes Marijuana, Cocaine, Methamphetamine, Ketamine, and other legal and illegal substances. Also another group of MDMA / Ecstasy users are adolescent, “a study by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America found that 9 in 10 parents know of ecstasy and see it as a danger to those who use it. Yet, parents are less likely to talk with their kids about ecstasy than any other drug. More than half of parents don’t talk about ecstasy with their children while only 1 in 4 parents say they talk a lot about the drug.”

What is Ecstasy?

MDMA (methylenedioxymethamphetamine) is a synthetic, psychoactive drug chemically similar to the stimulant methamphetamine and the hallucinogen mescaline. Street names for MDMA include XTC, Ecstasy, beans, doves, pills, E’s, little ones and the love drug. Research in animals indicates that MDMA is neurotoxin; whether or not this is also true in humans is currently an area of intense investigation. MDMA can also be dangerous to health and, on rare occasions, lethal. Ecstasy is far from being a risk-free part of a teen’s social life. Dangerous as well as illegal, ecstasy has sent increasing numbers of people to emergency rooms while posing longer-term risks to the brains and bodies of those who use it.

MDMA exerts its primary effects in the brain on neurons that use the chemical serotonin to communicate with other neurons. The serotonin system plays an important role in regulating mood, aggression, sexual activity, sleep, and sensitivity to pain.

The drug purity

Other drugs chemically similar to MDMA, such as MDA (methylenedioxyamphetamine, the parent drug of MDMA) are sold as MDMA. These drugs can be neurotoxin or generate additional health risks to the user. Also, ecstasy tablets may contain other substances in addition to MDMA, such as ephedrine (a stimulant); dextromethorphan (DXM, a cough suppressant that has PCP-like effects at high doses); ketamine (an anesthetic used mostly by veterinarians that also has PCP-like effects); caffeine; cocaine; and methamphetamine. While the combination of MDMA with one or more of these drugs may be inherently dangerous, users might also combine them with substances such as marijuana and alcohol, putting themselves at further physical risk.

Neurotoxicity

Research in animals links MDMA exposure to long-term damage to neurons that are involved in mood, thinking, and judgment. A study in nonhuman primates showed that exposure to MDMA for only 4 days caused damage to serotonin nerve terminals that was evident 6 to 7 years later. While similar neurotoxicity has not been definitively shown in humans, the wealth of animal research indicating MDMA's damaging properties suggests that MDMA is not a safe drug for human consumption.

The health hazards of Ecstasy!

Cognitive effects: Chronic users of MDMA perform more poorly than nonusers on certain types of cognitive or memory tasks. Some of these effects may be due to the use of other drugs in amalgamation with MDMA, among other factors.

Physical effects: In high doses, MDMA can interfere with the body's ability to regulate temperature. This can lead to a sharp increase in body temperature (hyperthermia), resulting in liver, kidney, and cardiovascular system failure. MDMA can interfere with its own metabolism (breakdown within the body), potentially detrimental levels can be reached by frequent drug use within short intervals. Users of MDMA face many of the same risks as users of other stimulants such as cocaine and amphetamines. These include increases in heart rate and blood pressure, a special risk for people with circulatory problems or heart disease, and other symptoms such as muscle tension, involuntary teeth clenching, nausea, blurred vision, faintness, and chills or sweating.

Psychological effects: These can include confusion, depression, sleep problems, drug craving, and brutal anxiety. These problems can occur during and sometimes days or weeks after taking MDMA.

What treatments for MDMA / Ecstasy exist?

There are no specific treatments for MDMA abuse and addiction. The most effective treatments for drug abuse and addiction in general are cognitive-behavioral interventions that are calculated to help modify the patient's thinking, expectancies, and behaviors, and to increase skills in coping with life's stressors. Drug abuse recovery support groups may be effective in combination with behavioral interventions to support long-term, drug-free recovery. There are currently no pharmacological treatments for addiction to MDMA.