STUDY FINDS ECSTASY CAUSES MEMORY LOSS

Ecstasy? Forget it.

A study of 15 Ecstasy users by a U of T professor showed a marked
decline in everyday memory in just one year.

The Ecstasy users, aged 17-31, had more difficulty recalling names,
pictures, stories and faces than when tested a year earlier.

"It shows there's some pretty detrimental effects," said U of T
assistant psychology professor Konstantine Zakzanis.

"They're not forgetting where they live. They're not forgetting things
that are engrained in their memory," said Zakzanis.

The results show users would have trouble recalling where they left
their keys or the content of a news report they had watched 20 minutes
earlier, he said.

By the end of the study, the participants -- 12 males and three
females -- had used Ecstasy from three to 225 times. They were not on
the drug when they were tested.

The study is significant because past research only compared memory
function between Ecstasy users and non-users, Zakzanis said.

Previous research didn't track users over a period of time to see
whether their memory continued to deteriorate. Zakzanis will test the
participants again next March.