STUDY LINKS 'ECSTASY,' LEARNING DISABILITIES

Using Drug While Pregnant May Place Babies At Risk

Baby rats given strong doses of the popular rave party drug ecstasy can
suffer even worse life-long learning disabilities than rats given
supposedly more dangerous drugs like methamphetamine, according to a study
published by a researcher from Children's Hospital Medical Center.

The findings, published in the May 1 edition of the Journal of
Neuroscience, imply that women who take the drug during the final three
months of pregnancy may be placing their babies at risk of permanent
learning problems.

People generally take the drug in capsule form as a stimulant.

"The damage we found was worse than previous studies of meth, and that was
very surprising," said study author Dr. Charles Vorhees. "Other than a
commonly known risk of (overheating), the common belief is that ecstasy is
a relatively benign drug."

The yearlong study gave newborn rats twice-a-day injections of ecstasy
during a time when rat brains are known to be completing development of a
part associated with memory and learning abilities. Even though the rat is
already born, the period is equivalent to the third trimester of human
pregnancy.
Dr. Vorhees estimates that the doses given the rats were slightly higher
than a typical dose a person might take.

Then, as adults, the rats were put through two different types of maze
studies to measure spatial and sequential learning. Rats given doses of
meth had trouble with just one type of learning, but rats given ecstasy had
trouble with both types.
In humans, spatial learning is linked to fact-based learning, such as
remembering the dates on a history test. Sequential learning involves
recalling multiple steps of a complex task, such as following a recipe or
remembering how to fix a car.

"The damage was substantial," Dr. Vorhees said. "In humans it would be hard
to predict whether the person would be diagnosed with a learning disability
or as a poor student that justs lags along near the bottom of the class."