MORE DISTURBED YOUNG PEOPLE DUE TO ECSTASY

Young people taking ecstasy risk developing a schizophrenia-like illness
from which they might never fully recover, a senior psychiatrist has warned.

Dr Tony Sharkey, clinical director of psychiatry in Co Donegal, says he is
seeing a large increase in the number of young adults suffering from
psychosis brought on by drug abuse.

"Initially, these young people are as disturbed as with any chronic
psychiatric illness. They are up at night, they have abnormal beliefs,
paranoid ideas. In layman's terms, they are very crazy," Dr Sharkey said.

They generally require rehabilitation over a period of years and often have
to be placed in supervised residential units. "In my experience very few
ever get back to what they were," he said.

Dr Sharkey said he was alarmed at the growing use of drugs and the lack of
information about their effects on mental health. Out of every 100 people
taking ecstasy, four were likely to suffer from psychosis, even where there
had not been prolonged use.

"Ecstasy frightens me. It is the one that precipitates most of the
psychosis. Marijuana can precipitate it in someone who is vulnerable, but
with ecstasy the person doesn't have to be vulnerable."

Dr Sharkey said young people should be aware that this could happen even if
they didn't take large amounts or abuse the drug over a long period.

"There are individuals out there who are susceptible to even one tablet. If
you are going to get psychosis, you don't have to take half-a-dozen or take
it over a long period of time. That is the frightening thing about it."

Each year Dr Sharkey treats five or six young people, aged between 18 and
25, suffering from symptoms similar to schizophrenia as a result of drug
abuse.

Some of the young people he has treated were so disturbed that they became
violent and a danger to other family members.

There was also an increased risk of suicide with the use of ecstasy, he
said. "It totally depletes the store of serotonin, so when you go down - it
is not like a hangover - you go right down. You can crash into a morbid
depression. People can be fine and then a few hours later, they are
suicidal."

While he wanted to highlight the dangers of esctasy, he said, alcohol abuse
was still the major problem in Irish society. "It is frightening the amount
young people are drinking."

Parents had to look at their own drinking habits before trying to change
teenagers' behaviour, he said.

Dr Sharkey was commenting on a report on the Irish Psychiatric Services
presented to this week's meeting of the North Western Health Board. It found
that the north-west had the highest rate of psychiatric admissions in the
State at 1,055.5 per 100,000 population in 1998. The North Eastern Health
Board had the lowest admission rate at 629.7 per 100,000.

Dr Sharkey said the higher rate in the north-west was due to a greater level
of social deprivation and the fact that a large proportion of people lived
in rural areas. When they became ill they had to be admitted because of the
distance they lived from hospitals, whereas in cities patients could avail
of day care.

He said the number of admissions was falling. A day hospital has been opened
in Letterkenny in addition to three new supervised residential units in Co
Donegal. A home "detox" scheme has also been introduced for people with good
social support. In the past all patients were taken into hospital to be
detoxed.