WHAT'S SO BAD ABOUT ECSTASY? RESEARCHERS AIM TO SEE

Long-term effects of drug unknown. Brain scans of users and non-users will
track changes over several years

Little is known about why people become users of the popular club drug
ecstasy or how steep a physical price they'll pay in the long run, say
McGill University researchers assessing the drug's impact.

Ecstasy - also known by its chemical name, MDMA, and by such street monikers
as Love Drug - has been found to decrease the brain chemical serotonin,
which affects mood and other behaviours, including impulsiveness.

What's not clear is whether ecstasy users are drawn to the drug because they
have naturally low serotonin levels or whether continued use of the drug
sends the levels lower, Simon Young, one of the McGill researchers, said
yesterday.

"We know people who use ecstasy tend to have low serotonin," Young said.

"Is it that they have low serotonin to start with and therefore they
particularly go for a drug that works through serotonin ... and makes them
feel better, or is it that they are just normal people and like the high
anyway?"

McGill's study, now in its second year, assesses the impact of continued use
of ecstasy on the human brain, in part by studying brain scan images of
ecstasy users and non-drug users taken over the span of years.

The images will help determine whether the data generated by studies of
animals and ecstasy apply to humans, Young said.

"Just because it is toxic to serotonin neurons in animals does not
necessarily mean it is in humans," he said. "There are often big species
differences."

Previous research involving animals has shown that ecstasy causes permanent
damage. In September, a study was published in the journal Science
indicating that the equivalent of one night's use of ecstasy caused "severe"
neurotoxicity and brain damage in baboons and monkeys.

That study raised the prospect that ecstasy could cause long-lasting damage
to human brains and could lead to the early onset of Parkinson's and other
neuro-degenerative diseases.

The McGill study aims to follow about 30 to 40 people who use ecstasy as
well as healthy non-users. The current funding of about $320,000 covers
three years.

The study is looking for more subjects, Young said.

Unique to the study, Young said, is the use of brain scans to track
serotonin levels over time. Subjects will undergo a positive emission
tomography (PET) scan as well as a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan.
The resulting images will be superimposed to better assess which areas of
the brain are affected.

The study may yield information that could be used to educate potential
ecstasy users, Young said. Harm reduction campaigns currently focus on the
drug's immediate impact. Users are told it can cause a dangerous rise in
body temperature, especially when used in hot, crowded nightclubs or during
night-long dance parties.

Anyone interested in participating in the study is asked to call (514)
398-5166.