On Fri, 12 Oct 2001 00:09:37 +1000, "John H." <John at faraway.com.au>
wrote:
>MDMA has been demonstrated to cause extensive damage to serotonin cells. One
>researcher has claimed that 100 uses of the drug is sufficient to cause
>damage
A note of caution here, MDMA/Ecstasy can do damage even from the first
dose. See for example:
Colado MI, Granados R, O'Shea E, et al. (1999)
"The acute effect in rats of 3,4-methylenedioxyethamphetamine (MDEA,
"eve") on body temperature and long term degeneration of 5-HT neurones
in brain: a comparison with MDMA ("ecstasy")."
Pharmacol Toxicol, vol 84(6):261-6
Certainly, psych disorders may be triggered by just one tablet.
>and increasing amounts of research point towards PERMANENTLY depleted
>serotonin resulting in mood and cognitive functions, will will probably only
>worsen with age. (Caveat: I have one study on rats that showed substantial
>serotonin recovery one year after loss from MDMA. There may be hope yet for
>>all those who thought this was another safe drug but I doubt it.)
AFAIK, the longest study is:
Hatzidimitriou G, McCann UD, Ricaurte GA. (1999)
"Altered serotonin innervation patterns in the forebrain of monkeys
treated with (+/-)3,4-methylenedioxy- methamphetamine seven years
previously: factors influencing abnormal recovery."
J Neurosci , vol 19(12):p 5096-10
which has shown that even after 7 years there is still significant
damage.
>Not sure
>of the process that gives rise to this, can only speculate that as serotonin
>metabolism generates super anions, and this together with nitric oxide,
>released under some types of glutamate receptor activation(assuming high
>levels of glu in MDMA and LSD), can give rise to peroxynitrate , which
>nitrates tyrosine H and and generally does a lot of damage to cells.
>Yes, there seem to be several factors at play, energy depletion within
the cell can interfere with it's ability to regulate ion balance, and
the ability to repair free radical/oxidation injury etc. And its not
just 5-HT that gets hypersecreted, but dopamine too.
>>After MDMA a person will feel 'washed out' for a few days, no matter how
>much they sleep. I suspect the serotonin is not waiting to be reabsorbed
>into vesicles, but has been lost forever, metabolised and gone. If it were
>just a matter of transport back to vesicles, then a day should be ample.
5-HT hypersecretion also seems to inhibit 5-HT synthesis from
L-Tryptophan.
>MDMA probably
>causes a low level but nonetheless deleterious inflammatory reaction. The
>subsequent release of cytokines like il1 and tnf will induce fatigue (hence
>why you feel tired when you get the flu and other viruses) and have been
>demonstrated to inhibit cerebral metabolism; not to mention causing cell
>death.
And there is now much work showing that cytokines may be involved in the
triggering of some psych disorderes, particularly anxiety and
depression.
Ian