ECSTASY USE MAY DIFFER IN EFFECTS

Study: Men Lose Fewer Brain Cells

Ecstasy, the increasingly popular party drug, may cause more brain
damage in women than in men, new research suggests.

A study published this week in The Lancet medical journal compared
brain scans of people who had taken 50 or more Ecstasy tablets in
their lifetimes with those of a group who had never taken the drug.
The findings indicated women -- but not men -- lost a significant
number of brain cells, even though the men had taken more Ecstasy over
the years.

Fifty tablets is considered the threshold for increased risk of
developing psychiatric problems. Experts said the preliminary findings
raised an interesting possibility but that larger studies are needed
to confirm the results.

Ecstasy, also known as XTC or E, affects serotonin, a brain chemical
that regulates mood, emotion, sleep, appetite, memory and sexual
behavior. The drug typically induces feelings of euphoria, increased
energy and sexual arousal, and makes people feel a need to be touched
or hugged.

The illegal drug, known scientifically as methylenedioxymethamphetamine,
or MDMA, is also said to suppress the need to eat, drink or sleep,
making it possible to endure parties for two or three days.

However, in high doses it can cause a sharp increase in body
temperature, leading to muscle breakdown, kidney and heart failure,
and death.

Studies have shown it also kills brain cells that release serotonin.
Scientists are now trying to find out how long the brain damage lasts
and its long-term consequences. So far, studies have found heavy users
have persistent memory problems and preliminary research suggests they
also have trouble with verbal reasoning and sustaining attention.

In the latest study, Dutch scientists compared the brain scans of 69
people, who were divided into four groups. One included people who
used drugs but not Ecstasy, the second comprised those who had taken
fewer than 50 tablets during their lives. The third, the heavy users,
had taken 50 or more Ecstasy pills and the fourth group included
people who used to be heavy users but had given up Ecstasy at least a
year before the study.

The researchers found that compared to the brains of women who had
never taken Ecstasy, the brains of heavy Ecstasy female users had
weaker concentrations of serotonin transporters, the sites on brain
cell surfaces that mop up serotonin from the space between cells after
it has finished acting on other cells.

If the chemical is not mopped up, further brain signals are prevented
from getting through.

MDMA gets into the brain cell through the serotonin transporter. A
missing transporter means a dead cell, said the study's leader, Dr.
Liesbeth Reneman, professor of radiology at the Academic Medical
Center at the University of Amsterdam.

The decline in serotonin transporters was not seen in the men's brain
scans, she said.

Kathryn Cunningham, professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the
University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, said it makes sense
that men and women would respond differently to MDMA.

One reason is that amphetamines are cleared from the body more quickly
in the presence of testosterone, she said. Also the female hormone
estrogen regulates the serotonin transporter, said Cunningham, who was
not involved in the study.

"Estrogen-dependent changes in the serotonin transporter might
regulate the brain response, and thus toxicity, to MDMA. And it's
conceivable that women may be more vulnerable to brain damage at
certain times of the month," she said.