ECSTASY SERIOUSLY DAMAGES BRAIN: STUDY

TORONTO -- The drug ecstasy can seriously damage the brain and cause severe
psychological problems, including suicidal urges and manic psychosis, a new
study has shown.

The study -- published today in Neurology -- examined the brain of a
26-year-old man who had died of drug overdose and had been using ecstasy for
nine years. He had also used cocaine and heroin in his final months.

"The levels of serotonin and another chemical associated with serotinin were
50 per cent to 80 per cent lower in the brain of the ecstasy user," said the
author, Dr. Stephen Kish, of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and
a University of Toronto professor.

"This is the first study to show that this drug can deplete the level of
serotonin in humans," Kish said.

The study explained serotonin is a chemical neurotransmitter that controls
mood, pain, perception, sleep, appetite and emotions.

Ecstasy--methylenedioxymethamphetamine -- is structurally related to the
hallucinogen mescaline and the stimulant amphetamine.