Ecstasy use may inhibit memory

It’s been almost two years since 16-year-old Brandy French, of Sewickley, Pa., died from… It’s been almost two years since 16-year-old Brandy French, of Sewickley, Pa., died from a negative reaction to the drug ecstasy, which she ingested at a rock concert in Burgettstown, Pa.

French’s death, from brain damage wrought by a chemical reaction, highlights the more immediate medical dangers that the drug can bring to those who use it.

Relatively little is known about the long-term medical implications of taking ecstasy, but a recently published study found that the memory functions of those who use it are at particular risk.

A British study, led by the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, found that people taking 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine — MDMA, also known as “ecstasy” — were 23 percent more likely to suffer long-term memory loss than those who did not.

The study, published Jan. 15 in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, surveyed 763 people in Europe, Australia and the United States. Out of that group, a sub-group of 81 subjects who had taken ecstasy at least 10 times were found to have 14 percent less long-term memory function than the 480 subjects who had never sampled ecstasy, and 23 percent less memory function than the 242 subjects who had never sampled any drugs.

The study also found that those taking ecstasy in conjunction with cannabis, or marijuana, had a 20 percent higher rate of short-term memory problems. The study results reported that users of ecstasy and marijuana were deteriorating the cognitive functions of the brain to the point of creating a “time bomb” of later-life memory repercussions.

The study was conducted using an online questionnaire, which encouraged participation from those ecstasy users who might feel uncomfortable with a face-to-face study concerning their use of a widely illegal drug.

While study researchers pointed out that as many as 2 million ecstasy tablets, with their distinctive assortment of colors and logos, are consumed each weekend in the United Kingdom, the Pittsburgh area is also familiar with the drug.

Forty people have been charged with involvement in connection to the international drug distribution network that oversaw the smuggling of thousands of tablets of ecstasy from labs in Europe to Pennsylvania destinations in Pittsburgh, Altoona, Indiana and Philadelphia, as well as destinations in other states.

According to Shirley Haberman, who is health education administrator for Student Health Services at Pitt, use of ecstasy and other hallucinogens by Pitt students is nowhere near as widespread as alcohol or marijuana use on campus.

A campus-wide survey by Student Health Services in the spring of 2000 was the last time the office examined the specific extent of ecstasy use at Pitt. Of the students who participated in the survey, 13 percent said they had tried ecstasy in their lifetimes, with 9 percent saying they had tried it in the last year, and 3 percent saying they had done it in the previous month.

“As far as current use, I’d say it’s very, very low on campus,” Haberman said. “I think, judging by the cases we deal with, that [use] has probably remained relatively stable [since 2000] and hasn’t gone very much up or down.”

First synthesized in the early 20th century, with uses as an appetite suppressant, MDMA was made illegal in the United States in 1985, but its many chemical variations, from tablet to tablet, have made it notoriously difficult to pin down just what ecstasy is, legally, as well as medically.

The high court of the Netherlands — the nation that is Europe’s largest producer of ecstasy — ruled that foreign dealers of the drug cannot be extradited to other countries for trial unless the request includes an exact chemical formula for the ecstasy in legal question that matches one deemed illegal under Dutch law.

Thus, while much of the ecstasy on the world market is of the MDMA family, there are numerous variants flooding club and party scenes. Makers interested in staying ahead of the chemical definition of the law intentionally create these variations.

These unknown quantities raised enough concern among users in the United States, and abroad, to necessitate the creation of “harm reduction” organizations, which look to make available health and safety information and supplies to people partying at clubs, raves or other events.

From July 2001, until it “ran out of funding” on October 28, 2003, the Web site EcstasyData.org, which emerged from the California-based harm reduction group DanceSafe, provided free access to lab testing for people who wanted to send in samples of their particular tablets to find out the chemical composition. The group posted results and pictures for all to see.

The wide chemical variety and numerous impostors have hindered previous attempts at defining, through projects like the Newcastle-led study, the impact of long-term use of the drug on cognitive functions like memory.

Lead study researcher Dr. Jacqui Rodgers, of Newcastle upon Tyne’s school of Neurology, Neurobiology ‘ Psychiatry, commented on the problems of defining the long-term effects of such a chameleon-like drug.

“We all know of cases where people have suffered acutely from the use of ecstasy,” Rogers said.

“But relatively little is known about the more subtle effects on the increasing number of regular users worldwide,” Rogers added. “We don’t really know what the long-term effects of ecstasy use will be, as it is still a poorly understood drug.”