Zalo
Bluelighter
Hey BlueLight,
I was looking at journal articles and came across an interesting one. The last paragraph summarized the article. (Note: T+ refers to the group that was given an amino acid drink that contained tryptophan)
Curran (2003) states that, "In summary, the major finding of this study was that men who had not taken MDMA for an average of 2.5 years showed elevated levels of plasma tryptophan following T+ which were strongly correlated with their performance on a prose recall task. Ex-users showing the poorest memory function at baseline were also those who metabolized least tryptophan. Ex-users showed enhanced sensitivity to tryptophan challenge and performed worse on several cognitive tests than current users or controls. There may be pre-existing differences in tryptophan metabolism in those who quit using this drug (compared with those who continue using it) and these may make them more vulnerable to the adverse effects of MDMA. At the same time, MDMA may have effects on 5-HT function and working and episodic memory that emerge after people stop using the drug and are evident for more than a year later."
So even after long term abstinence it seems as though tryptophan metabolism is less than base line levels leading to impairments in some domains in memory function. I also find it quite interesting that current users did better than ex-users after drinking the amino acid formula with tryptophan. It seems as if once you quit using MDMA you shouldn't get back into it. The ex-users had done MDMA more than 20 times within a year and current users had done MDMA more than 20 times within the past year. The frequency is definitely beyond harm reduction standards, but this kind of info turns me off from using MDMA. I'll still be doing MDMA next month, however, but I'm considering it being my last. If this so happens to be something already well known, then I'd feel rather silly, but it was news to me.
[Edit: The following paragraph was based on a retracted paper where methamphetamine was used instead of MDMA.] Another interesting tidbit I found as I was reading the discussion said that re-dosing may actually lead to dopaminergic neurotoxicity in addition to the serotonergic neurotoxicity. This was found in a different study where they gave non-human primates a 2mg/kg dose 3 times within 6 hours (Ricaurte et al. 2002).
References:
Curran, H. L. (2003). Altered response to tryptophan supplementation after long-term abstention from MDMA (ecstasy) is highly correlated with human memory function Tryptophan challenge and memory in MDMA users. Psychopharmacology, 169(1), 91.
Ricaurte, G. D. (2002). Severe Dopaminergic Neurotoxicity in Primates After a Common Recreational Dose Regimen of MDMA ('Ecstasy'). Science, 297(5590), 2260-2263.
I was looking at journal articles and came across an interesting one. The last paragraph summarized the article. (Note: T+ refers to the group that was given an amino acid drink that contained tryptophan)
Curran (2003) states that, "In summary, the major finding of this study was that men who had not taken MDMA for an average of 2.5 years showed elevated levels of plasma tryptophan following T+ which were strongly correlated with their performance on a prose recall task. Ex-users showing the poorest memory function at baseline were also those who metabolized least tryptophan. Ex-users showed enhanced sensitivity to tryptophan challenge and performed worse on several cognitive tests than current users or controls. There may be pre-existing differences in tryptophan metabolism in those who quit using this drug (compared with those who continue using it) and these may make them more vulnerable to the adverse effects of MDMA. At the same time, MDMA may have effects on 5-HT function and working and episodic memory that emerge after people stop using the drug and are evident for more than a year later."
So even after long term abstinence it seems as though tryptophan metabolism is less than base line levels leading to impairments in some domains in memory function. I also find it quite interesting that current users did better than ex-users after drinking the amino acid formula with tryptophan. It seems as if once you quit using MDMA you shouldn't get back into it. The ex-users had done MDMA more than 20 times within a year and current users had done MDMA more than 20 times within the past year. The frequency is definitely beyond harm reduction standards, but this kind of info turns me off from using MDMA. I'll still be doing MDMA next month, however, but I'm considering it being my last. If this so happens to be something already well known, then I'd feel rather silly, but it was news to me.
[Edit: The following paragraph was based on a retracted paper where methamphetamine was used instead of MDMA.] Another interesting tidbit I found as I was reading the discussion said that re-dosing may actually lead to dopaminergic neurotoxicity in addition to the serotonergic neurotoxicity. This was found in a different study where they gave non-human primates a 2mg/kg dose 3 times within 6 hours (Ricaurte et al. 2002).
References:
Curran, H. L. (2003). Altered response to tryptophan supplementation after long-term abstention from MDMA (ecstasy) is highly correlated with human memory function Tryptophan challenge and memory in MDMA users. Psychopharmacology, 169(1), 91.
Ricaurte, G. D. (2002). Severe Dopaminergic Neurotoxicity in Primates After a Common Recreational Dose Regimen of MDMA ('Ecstasy'). Science, 297(5590), 2260-2263.
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