COMBINATION OF `ECSTASY' AND FRENETIC CLUB DANCING IS RISKY, PHYSICIANS WARN

LONDON -- British doctors warned today about a potentially dangerous drug
syndrome, known as ``Saturday night fever,'' that is hitting the country's
club scene.

The syndrome, characterized by a rise in body temperature produced by
frenetic dancing, is named after the John Travolta film that typified the
disco craze of 20 years ago, results from clubbers using the drug
``ecstasy'' in combination with amphetamines or cocaine.

A study by doctors at St. Thomas's Hospital in London, published in the
Journal of Accident and Emergency Medicine, found that 26 percent of nearly
50 ecstasy users they had treated over a 15-month period had also taken
other drugs.

The combination produced serious complications such as delirium, seizures
and coma. Some of the patients, all between 15 and 30 years old, had to be
admitted to the hospital.

``Our findings also bear witness to the growing phenomenon of polydrug
use,'' Dr Hugh Williams, the lead author of the study, said in the
bimonthly journal.

``The high percentage of nightclubbers within our sample adds further
support to the contention that adverse effects may occur more readily when
(ecstasy) is used while dancing within a hot and crowded environment.''

Ecstasy, the party drug of the 1990s, is the street name for methylene
dioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), a synthetic amphetamine that is a stimulant
and a hallucinogenic drug.

The doctors said that for young adults being treated late at night with
disturbed behavior and increased temperature, the use of stimulant dance
drugs, especially ecstasy, should be suspected.

An estimated half-million young people take ecstasy on weekends in Britain.
More than 100 deaths have been reported since the drug was introduced into
the ``rave'' dance scene in 1988.

1997 - 1998 Mercury Center.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski