SIDE EFFECTS DOWN THE ROAD, DRUG MAY STILL DO HARM

People who use the drug Ecstasy appear to suffer long-term memory damage
even after they give it up, a new study from the Netherlands concludes.

The study, published last week in The Archives of General Psychiatry,
compared 22 recent Ecstasy users, 16 people who said they had used the drug
but not for at least a year, and 13 people who had never taken it.

Recent users and ex-users scored equally poorly in comparison to the
control group on tests of recall and verbal memory. The worst scores were
by the people who reported the highest doses of Ecstasy.

Another part of the study gave some clue about why. Ecstasy appears to act
on the parts of the brain that regulate the production of serotonin, a
brain chemical linked to mood and emotions. Earlier research had found that
the drug appeared to cause a surge of serotonin.

Brain scans in recent users showed signs of damage to mechanisms associated
with serotonin, particularly in an area of the brain linked to memory. That
damage was not found in those who had quit.

Taken together, the findings suggest that while the mechanisms regulating
the brain's chemistry may recover, the disruption appears to cause
permanent damage in cognitive function.

The researchers suggested that longer studies might find even larger problems.