REPEATED ECSTASY USE IS LIKELY TO IMPAIR MEMORY, STUDY FINDS

Long-term users of the drug ecstasy are at high risk of memory loss,
according to a new study.

The synthetic, psychoactive drug has stimulant and hallucinogenic
properties. It is used most heavily among 18-to 25-year-olds, often at rave
parties and in combination with marijuana, according to the National
Institute on Drug Abuse. It also is sold as "Adam," "XTC," "hug" and
"beans," and typically is taken in pill form, but also may be snorted.

According to an annual survey of teen drug use by the institute, 11 percent
of high school seniors had used the drug, and 3.6 percent had used it in
the past month.

In the new study, the 15 participants told investigators they were taking
the drug an average of 2.4 times a month.

The drug, which has the chemical name of methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or
MDMA, affects the hippocampus, the part of the brain associated with
learning and consolidation of new memories.

"For those who use ecstasy repeatedly, we have preliminary evidence to
suggest that memory process can be impaired with continued use of the
drug," said Konstantine Zakzanis, a professor at the University of Toronto
who co-authored the study published today in the journal Neurology.

"For those that use ecstasy once or twice in a lifetime, to date there is
no evidence to suggest impairment of memory function that is progressive or
permanent in nature. But the jury of ecstasy researchers (is) still
deliberating."

An earlier study on monkeys showed that exposure to ecstasy for four days
caused brain damage that was evident in the animals six to seven years later.

The users in the latest study -- ranging in age from 17 to 31 and 80
percent of whom were men -- had agreed to abstain from all drug use for at
least two weeks before initial testing and during follow-up. Drug-free
status was confirmed by urine and blood screening tests.

The ecstasy users were tracked for a year. Memory testing included measures
that are sensitive to intelligence and everyday memory function.

Zakzanis and his colleagues saw that continued ecstasy use was associated
with different aspects of memory decline, including retrospective memory --
like the ability to recall a short passage of prose immediately after it
was read and after a delay.

The ability to recall a story after a brief delay declined by about 50
percent among the subjects between their first assessment and the end of
the study.

The study also suggested that vocabulary and the ability to recall a
person's name were affected by long-term use of the drug, as was the
ability to immediately recall a route.

The researchers cautioned that the study group was small and that they were
relying on self-reported use of ecstasy by those in the study.