Mr Giggles
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2000
- Messages
- 362
-Popping Es could club your sex life to death-
They call it the love drug, but in realtity ecstasy dampens passions, say psychologists. It appears that people who use the drug frequently lose their appetite for sex. And the damge could persist long after they stop taking the drug.
Andy Parrot and his team at the University of East London collected anonymous questionaires from 768 young people in, Rome, Padua, London and Manchester. As people rarely take just ecstasy, the team wanted to find out how using combinations of drugs affects mental health.
The team divided the returned questionaires into six groups, based on different drug taking patterns. They ranged from people who took no drugs, those who consumed cigarettes and alcohol, to 'heavy' ecstasty users who had taken it on over 20 occasions, as well as those who used drugs such as cannabis and cocaine. People who took a lot of drugs reported more psychological problems such as agoraphobia and anxiety.
But it was heavy ecstasy users who had the most problems with sex drive, and were nearly three times as likely to report a loss of libido as non-users. The drug produces a warm euphoric high tha can last for a few hours. It works both by boosting the production and reducting the breakdown of the key neurotransmitter serotonin, which is linked to mood.
People coming down from E have depleted level of serotonin, and can hit their lowest poinit days after the original hit-hence the "Suicide Tuesday" hangover experienced by many Saturday-night pill-poppers.
These feelings of sadness, depression and anit-sociability normally fade within a week.
But the longer -term effects of ecstasy are now emerging. Regular use of ecstasy could be damaging the neurons that make serotonin, says Parrott. His team was the first to show that heavy ecstasy use can impair memory, and other groups have found that these effects can linger for up to a year after people stop taking the drug.
No one is sure whether damge to neurons is permanent. "The worry is that it may well be doing that-we're not sure," says Parrott. Permantly low levels of serotonin are linked to clinical depression, anxiety and loss of libido.
People who find they have to up their dose of ecstasy should be very concerned. says Parrott, as this could mean that the neurons making serotonin are becoming insensitive to the drug. The average age of ecstasy useres int he study was only 23. "It's really quite worrying," says Parrott. "It certainly isn't a safe drug."
Although no one has yet proved that ecstasy damages these neurons in people, researchers have shown that it does so in rats, says Mary Forsling professor of neuroendocrinology at the Guys', King's and st Thomas's School of Medicine in London. "There's always the concern that this may be happening in humans," she says.
From "New scientist, page 15, 13th January 2001,Claire Ainsworth.
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*I've tried most drugs but, Ecstasy would have to rate as being the sweetest of them all*
[This message has been edited by Mr giggles* (edited 18 January 2001).]
They call it the love drug, but in realtity ecstasy dampens passions, say psychologists. It appears that people who use the drug frequently lose their appetite for sex. And the damge could persist long after they stop taking the drug.
Andy Parrot and his team at the University of East London collected anonymous questionaires from 768 young people in, Rome, Padua, London and Manchester. As people rarely take just ecstasy, the team wanted to find out how using combinations of drugs affects mental health.
The team divided the returned questionaires into six groups, based on different drug taking patterns. They ranged from people who took no drugs, those who consumed cigarettes and alcohol, to 'heavy' ecstasty users who had taken it on over 20 occasions, as well as those who used drugs such as cannabis and cocaine. People who took a lot of drugs reported more psychological problems such as agoraphobia and anxiety.
But it was heavy ecstasy users who had the most problems with sex drive, and were nearly three times as likely to report a loss of libido as non-users. The drug produces a warm euphoric high tha can last for a few hours. It works both by boosting the production and reducting the breakdown of the key neurotransmitter serotonin, which is linked to mood.
People coming down from E have depleted level of serotonin, and can hit their lowest poinit days after the original hit-hence the "Suicide Tuesday" hangover experienced by many Saturday-night pill-poppers.
These feelings of sadness, depression and anit-sociability normally fade within a week.
But the longer -term effects of ecstasy are now emerging. Regular use of ecstasy could be damaging the neurons that make serotonin, says Parrott. His team was the first to show that heavy ecstasy use can impair memory, and other groups have found that these effects can linger for up to a year after people stop taking the drug.
No one is sure whether damge to neurons is permanent. "The worry is that it may well be doing that-we're not sure," says Parrott. Permantly low levels of serotonin are linked to clinical depression, anxiety and loss of libido.
People who find they have to up their dose of ecstasy should be very concerned. says Parrott, as this could mean that the neurons making serotonin are becoming insensitive to the drug. The average age of ecstasy useres int he study was only 23. "It's really quite worrying," says Parrott. "It certainly isn't a safe drug."
Although no one has yet proved that ecstasy damages these neurons in people, researchers have shown that it does so in rats, says Mary Forsling professor of neuroendocrinology at the Guys', King's and st Thomas's School of Medicine in London. "There's always the concern that this may be happening in humans," she says.
From "New scientist, page 15, 13th January 2001,Claire Ainsworth.
------------------
*I've tried most drugs but, Ecstasy would have to rate as being the sweetest of them all*
[This message has been edited by Mr giggles* (edited 18 January 2001).]
'