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How MDMA("Extasy")may enhance Sociability:Hypothesis

Andrew Ray aray at emory.edu
Mon May 27 01:30:03 EST 1996


Jeff Browndyke wrote:
> 
> How sociable can one be when they are dead (a common occurrance with
> bad batches of this drug)?
> 
> Doesn't this "burn-out" the MRN cells?  No serotonin is a bad
> thing...I think?
> 
> Jeff
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------> Jeffrey N. Browndyke
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I don't know, maybe it's like the Simpson's episode they just showed 
today - Jimi Hendrix and Ben Franklin playing air hockey together - maybe 
the dead are more sociable than we are :) ?  Seriously though, I haven't 
heard of many deaths due to bad batches of Ecstasy.  Most of the problems 
(and deaths) that I've heard about have been due to dehydration, 
overheating, etc. occurring in people at raves taking the drug and not 
knowing when to quit dancing until they've overdone it.
The research I've seen suggests that it CAN, but doesn't always, destroy 
cells in the various Raphe nuclei (MRN too I think).  Some factors 
include temperature (hyperthermia is a side effect, plus the setting - 
raving or other high-intensity activity adding to it) and interaction 
with other medications (studies suggesting taking SSRI's either before 
[also blocks effects of X] or up to 6 hours after taking Ecstasy will 
prevent neurotoxic effects).  Other work has suggested neurotoxicity due 
to oxidative metabolites.  The upshot is, if neurotoxicity occurs, 5HT is 
reduced, but not eliminated completely.  There may be some recovery of 
function, too, after several months, but this is still questionable.  The 
reduced 5HT levels, though, haven't been shown to cause any observable 
deficits in hardcore users.  It's probably like DA and Parkinson's - 
there are no awake behavioral deficits (my advisor has some evidence of 
sleep dysfunctions showing up before awake movement problems) until 
something like 80% of the DA producing cells are gone. The brain seems to 
have a pretty decent cushion when it comes to neurotransmitter loss.

Andrew Ray
aray at emory.edu
Emory University Neuroscience Program


PS  I don't know if this will get through intact as I've been having some 
problem accessing my news server (maybe it's a server problem - I'm not 
sure), but if it doesn't I'll repost it later.



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