Taking Ecstasy found to affect long-term memory

E-llusion

E-llusion

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PEOPLE who take Ecstasy are in danger of suffering long-term memory loss, a study has shown. Those who take the drug regularly are 23 per cent more likely to report problems with their memory than non-users, according to researchers from five English universities.
Ecstasy users who also take cannabis face “myriad memory afflictions” that could represent “a time bomb” of cognitive problems in later life.

Users say Ecstasy heightens awareness, intensifies emotions and makes them feel good. But in extreme cases it can cause surges in body temperatures severe enough to be fatal.

“Users may think that Ecstasy is fun and that it feels fairly harmless at the time,” the lead researcher, Dr Jacqui Rodgers, of Newcastle University, said. “However, our results show slight but measurable impairments to memory as a result of use, which is worrying.”

The survey team based their findings on responses from 763 participants in a web-based survey that questioned people from Britain, continental Europe, the US and Australia. They also looked closely at a sub-group of 81 “typical” Ecstasy users who had taken the drug at least ten times. The study is published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

The typical users showed long-term memory 14 per cent worse than the 480 people who had never taken Ecstasy and 23 per cent worse than the 242 who had never taken drugs at all. Additionally, the typical users made 29 per cent more mistakes on the questionnaire than people who did not take drugs.

“The findings also suggest that Ecstasy users who take cannabis are suffering from a double whammy where both their long-term and short-term memory is being impaired,” Dr Rodgers said.

The charity DrugScope said it was unlikely that the study would persuade Ecstasy users to stop taking it.

A spokeswoman said: “What is needed is a longitudinal study into Ecstasy use, following users over years to find out the long-term effects. Then we would have much more information to talk in an informed way about the long-term effects.”

Source

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January 15, 2004

Taking Ecstasy found to affect long-term memory

By Nigel Hawkes, Health Editor, Times Online
 
The survey team based their findings on responses from 763 participants in a web-based survey that questioned people from Britain, continental Europe, the US and Australia. They also looked closely at a sub-group of 81 “typical” Ecstasy users who had taken the drug at least ten times.
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I wonder how well does this sub-group of “typical” Ecstasy users represents all Ecstasy users and how well the 763 web-survery participants represents the population as a whole.

A spokeswoman said: “What is needed is a longitudinal study into Ecstasy use, following users over years to find out the long-term effects.
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That's REALLY what needs to be studied and measured, isn't it? How much long term memory degradation an Ecstasy user suffers over time and NOT how an Ecstasy users memory is compared to somebody else's.

Those who take the drug regularly are 23 per cent more likely to report problems with their memory than non-users, according to researchers from five English universities.
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I think they also need to state the frequency of use. If regularly means every weekend, then nobody is going to deny that ecstasy use causes memory problems. But using 1 pill regularly once a year probably does not.
 
true, but it's a correlation which strongly suggests cause and effect provided the memory tests were fair and accurate and other factors were eliminated as contributing to memory problems. Without knowing more about the sub-group of users, I suspect they were e-tards.
 
^^ That would be SHORT TERM, not a long term, memory problem. So in your case, I guess it's ok to keep popping those pills!
 
One of the things with correlational cause and effect as well, is that you don't know if A causes B, if B causes A, or if there is some other cause out there (C) that you aren't even measuring...so it's entirely possible, that the types of people that are more likely to use drugs regularly, or in particular ecstasy, might be different in their memory abilities aside from drug use. In addition, you're asking for a self-reported feeling about memory, instead of measuring the actual decrease in memory.

All this doesn't mean that there are flaws with the study, or that it doesn't have those effects, but that there really does need to be a controlled examination of these effects. If they are really concerned that this is a likely issue, and that it might be a factor in today's society, then they should be pushing like crazy to allow for more controlled experiments involving the longer-term use.
 
I definately lost memory abilities, and also picked up some speech problems - or it could be just old age.
 
From what is presented in the article, and admittedly I'm too lazy to follow the link and see if I got this right, there are a lot of problems with these conclusions. Their sample consists of people who were willing to take a web survey about their ecstasy use - more than likely the people who think about it this much are likely to be heavy users, and the fact that they volunteered for a study on ecstasy and memory loss may also reflect a perception that they have screwed themselves over somehow. They also are relying on asking people whether they think they are having any problems with their memory, rather than actually assessing their long-term memory. Many modest users who are simply growing older may well be blaming slowly declining functions on e based on previous exposure to media reports of its activity. And it doesn't sound like there was any control for recency of e or other hard drug use. It might take 6 months for any reversible alterations to fix themselves and a couple of days for any lasting effects of cannabis on cognition to flatten out.

This isn't to say that heavy e use doesn't have negative effects on cognitive processes, especially memory; I've read enough individual accounts to personally believe that it does. But like the lady said, someone needs to spring for a longitudinal study with better-selected groups before we really have anything that should pass peer review (well, that should pass peer review outside of the drug abuse field, anyway). Unfortunately those studies are unbelievably expensive.
 
CBRworm said:
I definately lost memory abilities, and also picked up some speech problems - or it could be just old age.
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Me too - i'm surprised no-ones dwelled in on the speach thing yet. And i personally believe MDMA/MDA (mda particually) can really fuck with ones cognitive abilities.

However, I think studies like this are often too unreliable - I don't know if it's the same elsewhere - but growing up, it is generally those LESS learnid and academically capable from school who became the pillheads.

It takes a special kind of person to take Ecstasy; some are adventurous exploring people with an interest in pshychoactives. However, an awful lot are idiots with shit memories wanting to get mashed at raves...
 
I'd think that you'd have major problems controlling for cannabis use here; Most MDMA users are Cannabis users, and the fact that cannabis use causes memory deficiencies is well documented.

Cannabis only users seem to show deficiencies in the exact same place as MDMA users, implying cannabis use is the cause; or at least, a much greater contributing factor
( Simon NG, Mattick RP "The impact of regular ecstasy use on memory function", Addiction, 2002; 97(12):1523-9. )
 
hey the article is from england. english articles are so credible that these studies prolly diddnt even happen.

according to researchers from five English universities.
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and that right there is all the credibility this article has to offer :\

it only names one of the universities.
 
Yeah brain function is a funny thing. I worry about long term effects of all the stuff that has passed thru me over the years. I've got a couple of bench marks for self testing - one is chess, and I reckon I'm still getting better at that so I'm going OK, hopefully. Basically, the mind is a use it or lose it proposition - keep it working and it will keep working for you. You wouldn't expect to keep physically fit if you did no exercise....
 
as said before, correlation doesn't mean causation. i'm sure inhibiting the re-uptake of serotonin, thereby overstimulating receptors for hours on end is completely safe....
 
We've known all along that ecstasy causes permanent brain damage. I mean jesus we've taken so many pills and put our brains under tremedous strain and overstimulation. We still do it because we don't give a fuck.
 
exactly what if we just told them the reason why we take them and kill our memory is because we dont want to remember the articles written by these e-tards anyways.
 
I'm trying to find out what "web based survey" this was - if any of you have any further information please get in touch with me, thanks!

SG
 
I haven't seen the journal article itself yet, but the early account from the MAPS clan: Online web survey of 1200 people. More than a third of the survey resposes were discarded out of hand because the authors felt they were 'suspect' (could be people just yanking their chain.) Of the remaining 282 people who claimed to have used ecstasy, almost a third of the responses were rejected because the authors felt the respondents might be 'biased' in their responses. Of these remaining 'researcher approved' people reporting ecstasy use, there was a greater rate of self-reported memory problems.

"Men should not know how their laws or their sausages are made." And perhaps not their science, either. :-) I actually agree with the basic idea that current regular ecstasy users have more memory problems; the drug changes serotonin receptor densities, which would almost certainly affect memory if used with any frequency. However, I would like to beat them with a length of pipe for offering this research as evidence of neurotoxicity (or even permanent memory problems.) This is low-grade work, and as is so often the case, they appear to have over-reached the significance of the data/research methodology in the conclusions they reached.
 
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