ECSTASY USE MAY CAUSE DEPRESSION: STUDY

Rave drug depletes brain chemical linked to mood, appetite, sleep, emotions

Feeling depressed, sluggish or down after a weekend of ecstasy use may be a
sign that the illegal drug is depleting serotonin levels in the brain, a
Toronto study suggests.

Serotonin is an important neurotransmitter or message-carrying chemical
linked with mood, appetite, sleep and emotions. Low levels have been shown
to trigger depression, anxiety and aggression.

The results of an autopsy on a 26-year-old man who died of a drug overdose
showed a 50 to 80 per cent reduction in serotonin, said Stephen Kish, a
researcher at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

Combined with other animal studies, this adds to the body of medical
research that shows the popular designer drug - touted by users to be all
but harmless - damages the brain, said Dr. Tonia Seli, a medical resident at
the centre's psychiatry department.

"There is enough evidence to suggest a lot of caution should be exercised
with the drug. It's not as benign as we once thought," Seli said.

Kish's study will be published today in Neurology, the scientific journal of
the American Academy of Neurology.

The man in the study had used ecstasy for nine years and in the last month
of his life, started to use heroin and cocaine, said Kish, who compared the
man's brain to those from autopsies of 11 healthy people.

By age 17, the man started using ecstasy once a month. By his mid-20s, he
started taking the drug four to five nights a week at raves, Kish said.

"The real question is, how long are some of the effects permanent? That is
what should concern ecstasy users the most," he said.

"Whether all users of ecstasy will show a severe magnitude of reduction (of
serotonin), I don't know, and we won't find out until we look at more
cases."

Ecstasy, known as methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA, is a recreational
drug which has been all the rage over the last few years. MDMA is the active
part of ecstasy that causes neurons to release serotonin.

Medical experts have expressed concerns that the mix of high-energy dancing,
high temperatures and dehydration add to ecstasy's effects.

"The day after you binge on ecstasy, the next morning, you aren't feeling
very happy. Your mood is depressed and this unhappy mood can easily be
attributed to low serotonin," he said.

Seli added some people can have acute paranoid episodes, a feeling of
restlessness or a mild depression that can last for a week.

The drug's popularity isn't just limited to youths frequenting raves.
Couples, gay men and young professionals are also experimenting with it.

Users are attracted by the four to six hours of what they call
love-your-neighbour euphoria - and the relatively cheap price of $30 a pill,
medical experts say.

Scientists are only now beginning to uncover the drug's powerful dark side,
Seli said.

Toronto is averaging about one ecstasy-related death each month, Kish added.

A third-year Ryerson student, Allen Ho, died last October three weeks shy of
his 21st birthday after he took ecstasy while attending a rave in a Toronto
underground parking lot.

And Elizabeth Robertson, 21, a mother and newlywed, died last month after
taking what her friends believe was ecstasy the night before.