ECSTASY MAY HARM THE BRAIN

The recreational "love drug" ecstasy may cause long-term damage to the
brain, researchers have found.

The British study found the drug, popular with night-clubbers, harms the
mechanism in the brain responsible for learning and thinking quickly.

Former users who had not taken ecstasy for at least six months were equally
affected, implying the damage is long-term or even irreversible.

The leader of the study, psychologist Ms Michelle Wareing, said the drug
affected the brain mechanism involved in learning new tasks.

"Ecstasy users, therefore, may not pick up things so quickly. They'll be a
bit slow on the uptake," Ms Wareing said.

"As soon as there's a bit of pressure, that's when they are going to have
problems. So it could affect performance at work, or in exams if you are a
student."

Conducted by Ms Wareing and her colleagues at the Edge Hill College of
Higher Education in Lancashire, the study recruited 30 men and women aged
between 18 and 25, putting them through two tests designed to test their
working memory and information processing ability.

Most of those with experience of ecstasy had taken the drug once or twice a
week. In both tests, former and current users performed worse than
non-users.

The information manager at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre in
Sydney, Mr Paul Dillon, said the study confirmed anecdotal evidence on the
effects of ecstasy on memory, and provided more information on the risks
associated with the drug.

"Many users comment on a loss of short-term memory as being one of the
problems they experience," Mr Dillon said. 'More and more young people
believe it is a harmless drug. This study gives us good-quality information
to provide to those users - there are risks."

However, Mr Dillon said it was difficult to draw definitive conclusions from
the study, partly because of its small sample size.

"It's also difficult when looking at ecstasy users because traditionally
they're poly-drug users. People who have used ecstasy would have used other
drugs as well. To say MDMA [the active element in ecstasy] alone caused the
problem is difficult."

Also, people taking ecstasy tablets "could be taking anything", including
caffeine, LSD and ethedrine, he said.

"When you take an ecstasy tablet there are so many things in it, you don't
know if it's the MDMA or not."