Meth vs MDMA - Damage

[[Matt]]

Ive read a lot of studies on E, watched the dancesafe slideshow but havent found much info on the damage meth causes. Just wondering exactly how much worse MDMA is for you than meth. Would doing meth once a week would be alot less damaging than doing MDMA?

 

[TheTruth]

Originally posted by [Matt]:
Ive read a lot of studies on E, watched the dancesafe slideshow but havent found much info on the damage meth causes. Just wondering exactly how much worse MDMA is for you than meth. Would doing meth once a week would be alot less damaging than doing MDMA?
Yes.

 

[yasmapal]

meth causes less brain damage than mdma, using meth once a week will most likely not result in any problems at all, that is if you can keep your habit to once a week

 

[fairnymph]

^^^
Do you have a study to back up that statement?

 

[yasmapal]

but havent found much info on the damage meth causes.
The reason he hasn't found studies is obviously because it doesn't cause as much damage as MDMA. If they caused equal damage, you would see just as much on the damages of meth.

 

[AbraMontague]

"American Journal of Psychiatry, March 2001 v158 i3 p377
Association of Dopamine Transporter Reduction With Psychomotor Impairment in Methamphetamine Abusers. Nora D. Volkow; Linda Chang; Gene-Jack Wang; Joanna S. Fowler; Maria Leonido-Yee; Dinko Franceschi; Mark J. Sedler; S. John Gatley; Robert Hitzemann; Yu-Shin Ding; Jean Logan; Christopher Wong; Eric N. Miller.
Author's Abstract: COPYRIGHT 2001 American Psychiatric Association
Objective: Methamphetamine is a popular and highly addictive drug of abuse that has raised concerns because it has been shown in laboratory animals to be neurotoxic to dopamine terminals. The authors evaluated if similar changes occur in humans and assessed if they were functionally significant.
Method: Positron emission tomography scans following administration of [[sup.11]C]d-threo-methylphenidate (a dopamine transporter ligand) measured dopamine transporter levels (a marker of dopamine cell terminals) in the brains of 15 detoxified methamphetamine abusers and 18 comparison subjects. Neuropsychological tests were also performed to assess motor and cognitive function.
Results: Methamphetamine abusers showed significant dopamine transporter reduction in the striatum (mean differences of 27.8% in the caudate and 21.1% in the putamen) relative to the comparison subjects; this reduction was evident even in abusers who had been detoxified for at least 11 months. Dopamine transporter reduction was associated with motor slowing and memory impairment.
Conclusions: These results provide evidence that methamphetamine at dose levels taken by human abusers of the drug leads to dopamine transporter reduction that is associated with motor and cognitive impairment. These results emphasize the urgency of alerting clinicians and the public of the long-term changes that methamphetamine can induce in the human brain."
I don't think you can compare meth neurotoxicity with mdmda neurotoxicity because the areas of the brain affected are different. Meth free radicals damage dopamine neurons (which causes psychomotor impairment) while mdmda free radicals cause damage to serotonergic neurons (which mainly affects mood). If you manage to destroy 90% of your dopamine neurons, you will probably develop Parkinson's disease or symptoms similar to it. If you destory an equal amount of serotonin neurons, you will be a depressed mofo. I'd rather be depressed myself, at least it can be successfully treated in most cases.
In other words, it makes no sense to try to equate the damage one substance does with that of another substance. They both cause damage in different ways, and the dose and frequency of use probably determine the extent of the damage.

 

[[Matt]]

Yeah i am aware that they affect different parts of your brain but what i really want to know is if your doing meth once a week would it affect your general well being? i.e feeling depressed, anxious through the week. I know this can differ greatly from person to person but taking antioxidents with meth doing it once a week cause significant changes which you would notice? Any personal experiences?

 

[themagicbean]

Did the meth study include approximate doses/terms of abuse for the meth users? I would venture to guess that the damage done by a teener a day (tweaker-style) is going to be a far cry from the damage done, by say a gram-a-week kinda person.

 

[SovietContin]

From my observations, while people who binge on meth definantly have problems, some long lasting, most meth users are okay after about a month or so even if they had been using heavily. People who use MDMA enough to have problems from it seem to have persisting problems for months or longer. And the problems associated from meth abuse other than paranoia seem to pale in comparisson to the problems brought on by MDMA use.
Meth is probably worse on your body, but MDMA is probably much worse on your brain.

 

[fairnymph]

yasmapal said:

The reason he hasn't found studies is obviously because it doesn't cause as much damage as MDMA. If they caused equal damage, you would see just as much on the damages of meth.
Sorry, but this is NOT obvious. Lack of studies != lack of damage. Please be prepared to back up your statements. Think before you post.
AbraMontague said:

I don't think you can compare meth neurotoxicity with mdmda neurotoxicity because the areas of the brain affected are different. I think this is an excellent point. I was thinking about this issue the other day; perhaps it's like comparing apples and oranges?

 

[Ronald]

I don't think it is possible for one to say that meth is less harmful than xtc. In UK meth is class b, xtc being class a. This may have something to do with external matters (use of meth to lorry drivers) but we have to remember that these drugs act on diffrent systems, meth = dopamine, xtc = serotonin, although there is obviously a margin for overlap. My point being that the danger is a matter for the individual. Although if one were to take the same dose of each then meth would be more dangerous although i am not thinking intravenous.

 

[Ronald]

Even that last statement is obscure, what is dangerous to one may be threshold to another.