ECSTASY USERS RISKING BRAIN DAMAGE, SAYS US REPORT

ECSTASY users could be heading for a future beset by psychiatric problems
as a result of brain damage, according to research published yesterday.

Findings from America suggest that many users could be risking serious and
perhaps permanent brain damage, with potentially frightening consequences
both for them and society.

Brain scans carried out on 14 former heavy users of ecstasy revealed
changes indicating damage to specific nerves that produce the vital
messenger chemical serotonin.

Serotonin, which carries messages between nerves, is thought to have wide
ranging roles in regulating mood, memory, pain perception, sleep, appetite
and sexual activity.

People with psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety often lack
serotonin. Anti-depressant drugs like Prozac boost levels of the chemical
in the brain by preventing its re-absorption into the nerve cells.

Neurologist Dr George Ricaurte and researchers from Johns Hopkins Medical
Institutions, Baltimore, Maryland, published their results in the Lancet
medical journal yesterday.

They write that the ''functional consequences'' of brain damage caused by
ecstasy might include ''depression, anxiety, memory disturbance, and other
neuro-psychiatric disorders''.

Hannah Cinamon, drugs programme manager at the Health Education Authority,
said: ''We hope this news will make drug users consider the long-term
implications of taking ecstasy.

Clues that suggested taking ecstasy might harm brain neurones had already
emerged from studies of the effects of the drug's constituent chemical,
MDMA, on monkeys.

The work confirmed what scientists had suspected -- that recreational doses
of MDMA were capable of causing lasting damage to the brain.

The technique used by the scientists took five years to develop. They used
a radioactive tracer to target molecules called serotonin transporters
which normally re-absorb the chemical into nerve cells after it has done
its job.

A brain scan technique called positron emission tomography (PET) measured
the tracer's uptake in the brain.

The scans revealed that ecstasy users had far fewer serotonin transporters
than people who did not take the drug. The greater the use of ecstasy --
and some subjects had taken it 200 or more times -- the greater the loss.

Serotonin transporters lie embedded at the tips of finger-like extensions
to the nerve cells called axons. These structures are crucial to normal
cell function because they transmit nerve signals from one brain cell to
another.

The same regions of the same nerve cells are involved in releasing
serotonin. Damage to the axons would therefore not only affect serotonin
re-uptake, but also its release.

Dr Ricaurte said: ''These losses are significant, and, along with our early
studies in animals, suggest that nerve cells are damaged.''

The animal studies indicated that the losses were long-lasting and may be
permanent. Some of the volunteers taking part in the new study had not
taken ecstasy for several years, yet their brains still showed signs of
damage.

The area of damage was diffuse but included the endings of
serotonin-releasing nerves that reach throughout the fore-brain. This is
the ''higher'' brain area involved in thought, memory and emotion.

Ecstasy is a 'designer' drug hybrid of the hallucinogen mescalin and the
stimulant amphetamine. Users report a heightened sense of closeness with
others, increased awareness of emotion and a greater ability to communicate.

Dr Ricaurte said: ''They find these effects unique, and we hope to use this
technique to explore the basis for good feelings, as well as for
depression. But our immediate concern is that people who use MDMA are
putting themselves at risk of developing brain injury.''

Checked-by: Pat Dolan