Party Drug Linked To Brain Damage

Ecstasy, a drug popular with teenagers who writhe through all-night dance parties known as “raves,” may cause irreversible brain damage and depression.

Users of the drug claim it heightens their sex drive while giving them a sense of tranquility.

But according to a Johns Hopkins University study, published in this month’s Journal of Neuroscience, the drug causes lasting damage to the parts of the brain that produce the chemical serotonin, which controls mood, appetite and sexual functions.

“Results suggest that people who have used (Ecstasy) in the past have some kind of (brain) damage,” said George Ricaurte, an assistant professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins.

Brain cells produce serotonin in their axons, which reach out from the cells like trees with branches.

“Ecstasy, or MDMA, trims off the axons, but leaves the nerve cells intact,” Ricaurte said. “We wanted to see if they could be grown back.”

Some laboratory rats experienced regeneration of the axon branches, but Ricaurte said there was very little in monkeys. Any regrowth he found was abnormal. In people, lack of normal axons and the resulting loss of serotonin could lead to depression, he said.

One neurologist said the study was further evidence that using Ecstasy is risky.

“It makes you feel good, but you’re going to probably get hurt,” said Robert Daroff, chief of staff at University Hospitals in Cleveland and editor-in-chief of Neurology, a journal published by the American Academy of Neurology.